Create stronger collaboration experiences—before, during, and beyond group projects.
The Collaboration Development Activity Chain is a flexible instructional framework that helps instructors support collaboration, peer feedback, and reflection through ready-to-use or adaptable activities.
Why Rethink Peer Evaluation?
Most peer evaluation occurs after collaboration has already ended, when opportunities to improve teamwork have already passed.
The Collaboration Development Activity Chain treats collaboration as a learning process rather than a single evaluation event. Instead of focusing only on evaluating past performance, it helps students strengthen collaboration while they are working together and develop collaborative practices that extend beyond a single project or course.
What Makes This Different?
Rather than relying on a single end-of-project peer evaluation, the framework supports collaboration across the life of a project.
Each activity contributes to a connected learning experience, allowing students to carry forward shared expectations, feedback, and reflection from one experience to the next. The result is richer opportunities for learning, not only within the project itself but in the collaborative skills students continue to develop over time.
Flexible Implementation
The framework is designed to scale with your course. Each activity provides meaningful value on its own, allowing you to adopt the level of support that best fits your students and course goals.
The complete activity sequence provides the richest learning conditions, with each activity building upon the shared experiences established by the previous one.
The sequence begins by helping teams establish shared expectations, then guides students in strengthening collaboration, developing constructive feedback skills, and ultimately reflecting on what they will carry into future collaborative experiences.
| Activity | Instructor Implementation Time | Estimated Student Time |
|---|---|---|
| Team Charter | 10 min | 30–40 min |
| Pulse Check | 5–10 min | 5–10 min |
| Feedback in Progress | 10–15 min | 30–45 min* |
| Feedback Forward | 10–15 min | 30–45 min* |
* Student time estimates use a four-person team as a reference. Time increases with team size.
What Students Gain
Students have opportunities to:
- establish shared expectations for collaboration
- communicate more effectively within teams
- recognize and address collaboration challenges earlier
- give and receive more meaningful peer feedback
- reflect on both individual and team development
- develop collaborative practices and reflective habits that transfer beyond a single project or course and into future collaborative experiences
Putting the Framework into Practice
We Build the Framework. You Shape the Experience.
Choose the implementation approach that best supports your course goals.
Design Principles
The framework is intentionally designed to be:
- Practical — integrates into existing courses without major redesign.
- Flexible — adapts across disciplines, project types, and teaching approaches.
- Modular — supports meaningful standalone activities while creating a richer developmental experience when implemented as a connected sequence.
- Evidence-informed — translates established educational research into practical instructional resources.
- Instructor-supportive — reduces implementation effort while preserving instructional flexibility.
Research-Informed Design
The Collaboration Development Activity Chain is informed by established educational research. Each activity draws on research relevant to its specific learning purpose and includes an Educational Design section explaining how that research shaped its instructional design and implementation.
Research areas include collaborative learning, adult learning, peer feedback, reflective practice, psychological safety, self-regulated learning, and instructional design.