Aug. 6, 2026 | By Hannah Cheever

Working in groups is challenging for students of all ages in all settings. In online courses, it can seem impossible, especially in asynchronous formats. While online learning can be isolating, integrating collaborative learning into online courses has the potential to build social connections, ultimately leading to a better learning experience for many students.

Those who earned the lower grades seemed to be under a self-fulfilling prophecy: They reported, for example, that they did not believe they were able to get a high grade, and indeed that turned out to be the case.

The Postsecondary Teaching with Technology Collaborative created Student-Peer Interaction and Networking (SPIN) as a practical strategy to promote meaningful peer collaboration in online courses and support students’ motivation by helping them feel a greater sense of belonging in the class (see the box for the two key components of SPIN).

SPIN is one of three strategies in the Collaborative’s new Self-Directed Learning (SDL) Instructional Model, all of which empower students to better manage their learning in online courses. Because our research found that SPIN is more challenging for instructors to implement, this blog post shares resources and examples included in the SDL Instructional Model to support effective student collaboration.

Students who participated in the Collaborative research and development activities described how feelings of isolation in online courses present barriers to learning.

One student said, “For the most part, I feel like online classes are just like, it’s not so much a class, but just a bunch of assignments. In person, if we’re learning something with the teacher, you could approach the teacher directly in that class.”

SPIN collaborative activities help to address this challenge by creating more structured opportunities for students to show up to class, interact, share challenges, and surface confusion.

What Makes SPIN Collaborative Activities Different?

Many online faculty already promote collaboration in their classes by assigning group activities. Others find group activities too challenging to implement in online courses. The SPIN resources are intended to be helpful for faculty with all levels of experience. Existing group activities can easily be adapted to include SPIN strategies.

For online faculty developing new collaborative activities, SPIN offers research-informed design principles to promote student engagement.

Principle	Instructor Activities
Group students intentionally	Use information from the introductory questionnaire to group students who have similar interests, hobbies, or schedules
Ensure every student has a clear, meaningful role in the assigned activity	Assign activities with multiple parts and, before the work begins, ask the group to create a team plan describing each member’s role and responsibilities
Applied learning	Integrate support for seeking help—such as online sessions with peer tutors—within a learning management system
Build in faculty communication checkpoints	In addition to regular team meetings, ensure that teams know they can meet with you as needed
Use student reflections to improve the next activity	Use the responses to the Collaborative Reflection Tool to inform updates to the types of activities you assign and your groupings and to provide additional supports to students as needed

Our Secret Sauce: Making Reflection Part of the Collaboration

In addition to these design principles, the secret sauce of the SPIN collaborative activities is our Collaborative Reflection Tool. Students begin their collaborative work by reviewing the tool’s tips on how to work effectively as a group. This pre-activity part of the tool gives the group a chance to think about what will make their collaborative learning experience effective, which can help the group avoid common challenges with communication and misaligned expectations.

Later, students close the group activity by reflecting – either individually or as a group – on how their collaboration went and what they would do differently next time. This post-activity element of the tool not only provides faculty with insight into how the group worked, but also encourages students to self-reflect, giving them information they can use to adjust their plans for future assignments.

SPIN Collaborative Activities in Practice

Here are two group activities adapted from examples shared by our research partners:

• Share assignment approaches: Students review a completed assignment together (e.g., homework, a problem, or a project) and share with their group how they completed it. Before the activity, faculty provide a short model of what it means to explain an approach rather than just give an answer. Students explain their process, say where they got stuck, and share resources or strategies that helped them move forward. After the discussion, each group submits a summary of key takeaways. This summary could include one useful strategy, one common point of confusion, and one question the group wants answered.
• Synthesize study habits: Students divide up course content, create exam “practice questions” and/or answer summaries, and then meet to discuss them. Rather than combining their separate pieces into a study guide, they should synthesize critically. This involves checking one another’s practice questions and responses, asking clarifying questions, and make sure every group member understands all the content. Not only does this activity promote collaborative learning, but it also gives students a way to connect before an assessment, when help-seeking matters most.

Online collaboration does not become meaningful by chance, but rather through intentional design and support. SPIN gives faculty this needed structure for helping students connect and learn how to seek help to avoid feeling alone and stuck.

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Interested in learning more about SPIN? Check out more information and resources in the full SDL Instructional Model!

For more information, contact us at PostsecCollab@sri.com or follow us on X at @PostsecCollab.

Tags: Instructional Strategies Online Learning Self-directed Learning