Online Student Team Learning in a Flipped Classroom

Abstract

Collaboration among students working in groups to master new material has been defined as “student team learning.” While past research has focused on student team learning in the classroom, this study presents evidence of student team learning by students working in groups online in a flipped learning environment. An online group activity conducted during a classroom offering of an upper-level university course in the fall of 2019 is compared with the same group activity conducted during an asynchronous offering of the same course in the spring of 2021. On both occasions, groups used Google Docs, and screenshots reveal that student team learning occurred similarly within groups working online in the classroom and in an asynchronous course. The evidence provided is particularly relevant in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has accelerated the development at universities worldwide of simultaneous classroom and asynchronous offerings of courses.