Work-in-progress: A novel approach to collaborative learning in engineering programs

The importance of collaborative learning is well recognized. But achieving collaborative learning, especially in engineering (or, in general, in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM)) courses, is challenging. Over the last several years, a number of online technologies that can be used to effect collaborative learning have been introduced. Especially promising are wikis and programs in various disciplines have introduced wiki-based collaborative activities. But researchers have reported that, contrary to expectations, wiki-based activities have not resulted in promoting collaborative learning. The results have been especially poor in STEM courses. Peer-instruction (PI) is a classroom technique that helps students help each other develop deeper understanding of important concepts and overcome common misconceptions. In this paper, we report on our on-going work that integrates PI ideas with the approach of wikis to develoop an online collaborative learning approach designed for STEM courses. We elaborate on the conceptual basis of the approach and situate it within the Community of Inquiry framework, detail our plans for using it in a number of engineering courses, consider the prototype implementation of a tool based on the approach, and our plans for assessing the approach.