9 tips for successfully including peer collaboration in an online course

There are still many preconceptions regarding which types of tasks cannot occur online. Often when I ask new clients why they opt for a ‘blended’ program, they indicate the need for people to work together – implying that true collaboration can only happen face-to-face.

That’s not true.

Many of our clients run successful collaborative eWorkshops (mostly asynchronous, so no or few webinars). In fact, there might be more collaboration in an online version compared to its face-to-face equivalent because we’re giving people more time to think and formulate their contributions. Asynchronous collaboration often goes deeper.

If you have an online course or workshop where collaboration doesn’t work, this will most likely be due to one of these two reasons: (1) the course shouldn’t be collaborative in the first place because it’s a compliance course, or (2) there are issues with the design and/or facilitation of your collaborative task.