I was recently contacted by Times Higher Education to write a piece about global collaboration in higher education. Although a different context to K-12, where most of my experience and research has focused previously, there are key imperatives for HEd institutions to embrace online global collaborative learning (OGCL) as part of being more flexible, open, and interdisciplinary.

In the age of AI this includes reimagining real world learning and authentic assessment approaches.

Learning design for online global collaborative learning

Curriculum-embedded, cross-institutional collaboration must align with curriculum to some extent, at least, either within a discipline or in an interdisciplinary context.

What are the attributes of a designed OGCL project?

• Length: collaborative projects can be anything from three weeks to three months long – with a preference for about five to six weeks
• Groups: cross-institution student groups with two to five participants in each
• Synchronous session (opening the collaboration): an online meeting for participants usually in the first week of the project
• Asynchronous collaboration: student groups communicate independently after the opening session. They are encouraged to use a combination of provided and chosen technology tools. Synchronous group meetings are optional
• Co-creation: after a collaborative investigation, where students share cultural perspectives, biases and understandings around the chosen topic, they co-create an artefact such as a website, video, podcast, poster, debate or even an immersive experience (such as a virtual museum)
• Synchronous showcase (closing the collaboration): the final group “product” is showcased in a synchronous session at the end of the collaboration
• Assessment: successful OGCL is typically linked with assessment.

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