Assessing personal learning in online, collaborative problem solving

Collaboration is understood as a continuous group activity addressing a mutually constructed problem or challenge (Roschelle & Teasley, 1995). If the problem or challenge does not hold the mutual interests of the parties, collaboration is impossible. In addition, during collaboration, an individual group member’s contributions and influences on others comprise important aspects of the group experience, because without individuals there is neither group nor collaboration. At the same time, a group’s ability to collaboratively solve a problem is more than the sum of individuals’ contributions because unique synergies and added values emerge during the group’s social-learning processes (Slavin, 2010). Therefore, assessing personal learning is bound up with assessing the group’s collaborative problem-solving processes. This chapter focuses on assessing personal learning through challenges that contain open-ended, unresolved problems, which in turn bring forth higher-order thinking processes, communications, critical thinking, and creativity.