DETROT – Collaborative learning works on the standard that people learn from each other whenever they are together.

The main purpose of collaborative learning is that when employees are working together they learn from each other and develop their knowledge and skills. The main focus is to complete the task and achieve a common goal.

Collaborative learning can take place between two individuals or a group of people. With the help of collaborative learning, you can reduce the need for special training sessions and while training together the employee will be more educated, skilled, and even engaged with the learning material. Collaborative learning is an efficient way to educate students as well as the employees of your organization. Even educational institutions can benefit from collaborative learning as it improves the level of understanding and develops high-level thinking amongst students.

Students form groups and complete the task given to them by their educator or an instructor. This enhances the communication skills as they are required to interact more with each other.

Online training can be isolating for some of the employees, as they are required to attend the training sessions on their own. Watching the training videos all alone becomes psychologically difficult in the long run and gradually starts becoming ineffective. To prevent this from happening, organizations have started investing in LMSs (Learning Management systems) to train their employees. For instance, many organizations use 360 Learning, which is an LMS for collaborative learning. Let us understand the benefits of collaborative learning.

1)      Improved Knowledge Retention

Collaborative learning converts the long and complex subjects into easy and understandable modules, thus it is more effective than the traditional training methods. With the help of collaborative learning, the employees come closer to one another, share their learning experiences and enhance their knowledge base and skills. This kind of learning brings down the information load on the employees and helps them retain the information shared. The courses created for collaborative learning are such that they require a team to solve problems together.

2)      Better Relationships

With the rise in remote working and work from home culture, the employees are no longer required to stay in the same office or building or even the same country for that matter. This has lowered the sense of community working or culture of working together. Collaborative working lets the employees develop relationships and hold a strong sense of community with each other. With the help of collaborative learning tools, the employees can chat with each other and get instant guidance and feedback from their colleagues on a particular topic they are stuck with. This will help in improving peer relationships and increase a sense of belonging to the organization.

3)      Problem-solving skills are enhanced

Projects created for collaborative learning require groups to come together to complete a task or even solve a problem. Everyone has a different opinion and perspective, while working in a group everyone offers different solutions to a given problem, thus you get to learn how a single problem can be solved diversely. Someone might come up with an idea that no one would have thought about. When everyone has presented their ideas and thoughts, people in the group can analyze all the solutions and come up with the best solution. Employees will learn to handle a situation in different ways and develop problem-solving skills.

4)      Boosts Production

Everyone wants to finish their task smoothly. But unexpected problems arise and hamper the work schedules and slow the production. No one can guarantee to eliminate these unwanted issues and problems, but you can always lower the time taken to solve these problems by creating a collaborative learning environment. For instance, an employee gets stuck and struggles to solve an issue; he has wasted work hours but still has not come to a solution. But, in a collaborative environment, they can discuss the issues with their colleagues and resolve them in no time. This is going help in saving a lot of work hours and will boost the productivity levels and create an environment of confidence.

Collaborative learning offers advantages that no other learning model can match. Incorporating collaborative learning into your professional development programs will help create and develop a confident and efficient workforce. When employees are actively engaged in their work and training, they are likely to remain with the company for long. When they feel more connected to their work by the training that is provided for improving their productivity they become more committed to the company.

This article was provided by Jenny Patel