Learning to Collaborate in a Project-based Graduate Course: A Multilevel Study of Student Outcomes

Abstract

The context of this study is an interdisciplinary project-based course at a large public university in Scandinavia. The course is taught annually to 3,300 graduate students from all fields of study, and learning to collaborate is a specified learning objective. Similar courses are widespread in higher education institutions worldwide, and empirical evidence of their impacts on students’ skill development is needed. This study examined students’ collaboration skill outcomes; whether outcomes vary by gender, academic achievement, field of study, course format (accelerated and semester based); and variations in outcomes across student groups and course classes. We used a pretest-posttest design in which 89% of students answered a self-report questionnaire about collaboration skills. The results indicate that the participating students’ interdisciplinary, interpersonal, and conflict management skills improved significantly from the beginning to the end of the course (p < .001, d > 0.4). We also found that the accelerated course format positively influenced the students’ conflict management skill outcomes and that the variability in the students’ overall collaboration outcomes was related to their student group (not their course classes). Another important takeaway from our study is that the students’ gender, academic achievement, and field of study showed little impact on their collaboration skills. The non-significance of the measured individual characteristics and the significance of the student group for students’ collaboration outcomes are important reminders for teachers in higher education to guide and support both their students’ learning and group processes in project-based courses.