Instructional Strategies for Forming Online Collaborative Teams

Thus in online environments, the course design should explicitly include ice breakers, “getting-to-know-you” activities, and warm ups to initiate the kind of meaningful encounters that lead to more engaged and productive relationships (McDonald, Zydney, Dichter, & McDonald, 2012; Settle-Murphy, 2013).

rather than ask only whether particular instructional group strategies do or don’t work, it is important to look beyond the strategies to understanding what is happening among students or individually that influences students’ experiences in a class. Significant attention should be paid to situations in which a planned strategy does not work and additional strategies should be considered to promote a more collaborative setting.