Collaborative Learning Fellows

Faculty and staff selected to serve as Collaborative Learning Fellows for their work associated with a Spring 2027 course will receive a stipend of $500 to support their efforts to advance collaborative learning throughout the semester.

Faculty and staff selected to serve as Collaborative Learning Fellows for their work associated with a Spring 2027 student development opportunity (not associated with a course) will receive stipends determined by the frequency with which the student development occurs, with stipends ranging from $100 (for one-time student development opportunities) to $500 (for ongoing opportunities throughout the semester).

Faculty and staff are invited to apply to serve as a Collaborative Learning Fellow during the Spring 2027 semester. Applications shouldn't take more than 10 minutes to complete and should be submitted by Monday, November 30. Faculty and staff will be notified by Monday, December 14 whether they have been selected for a Fellowship. Questions about the application process or the Fellowships can be directed to Renee Wells. Click on the appropriate link below to apply to be a Collaborative Learning Fellow.

• Collaborative Learning Fellowship Application (for Spring 2027 Courses) 
• Collaborative Learning Fellowship Application (for Spring 2027 Student Development Opportunities) 

Because our faculty and staff are already designing and facilitating opportunities for students to practice active, engaged, and collaborative learning both inside and outside the classroom, this grant asks Collaborative Learning Fellows to expand on work they are already doing in furtherance of the following short- and long-term grant objectives:

• Identify pedagogical tools designed to help increase awareness among students of the learning and development outcomes they meet and the applied skills they practice by participating in active, engaged and collaborative learning in and outside the classroom
• Identify pedagogical tools that help students understand which skills they are being asked to practice during active, engaged and collaborative learning opportunities
• Identify pedagogical activities that help students understand how to intentionally and effectively practice active, engaged and collaborative learning
• Identify pedagogical tools that help students reflect on and self-assess their practice of these skills and their progress towards meeting related learning and development outcomes
• Identify pedagogical tools that can be used to assess and provide feedback to students to support their continued learning and development of these skills
• Establish a collective repository of pedagogical artifacts that enable resource sharing, support a community of practice that explores and expands our pedagogical approaches to collaborative learning, inform an ecosystem map of where students can develop these skills across our campus, lay the foundation for scaffolding student development across institutional contexts, and identify opportunities for interdisciplinary and inter-divisional partnerships that can help students hone their abilities and approaches to learning with and from each other in transformative ways

Provided below is a list of potential SLOs, including from the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS) Student Learning & Development Outcomes, the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) Competencies, and the SUNY Cortland General Education Core Competencies & Learning Outcomes across relevant areas (e.g., communication, constructing knowledge, critical thinking and reasoning, reflective thinking and self-appraisal, interdependence, collaboration, teamwork, leadership, civic responsibility)

• Practice active listening, seeking to understand the ideas and perspectives of peers
• Promote active dialogue, asking questions that invite peers to share their ideas and perspectives
• Utilize reflection and synthesis, communicating back an understanding of the ideas and perspectives shared by peers
• Demonstrate clear and effective communication, expanding on one’s own ideas and perspectives to enable understanding among peers
• Identify underlying assumptions in one’s own and peers’ ideas
• Analyze multiple points of view contributed by peers to more fully understand an issue or problem
• Weigh previous assumptions and consider new perspectives, insights, approaches, or solutions based on ideas shared by peers
• Develop well-reasoned arguments informed by the consideration of multiple points of view contributed by peers
• Recognize one’s ability to create new understandings through dialogue and collaboration with peers
• Build strong, positive, collaborative relationships with peers
• Understand and effectively navigate group dynamics to enable equitable and effective collaboration among peers
• Motivate and support peers, acknowledging the value of their ideas and perspectives to the process of collaboration
• Seek help from peers when needed and offer help to peers to foster more equitable and effective group dynamics
• Balance one’s own needs with the needs of peers and exercise the ability to compromise when working collaboratively with peers
• Assess the effectiveness of one’s own and team members’ approaches and contributions to the collaboration process
• Identify ways to adapt and improve one’s own and team members’ approaches to group dynamics
• Foster a culture of reflection, dialogue, constructive feedback, and collective re-visioning to support more equitable and effective collaboration among peers
• Promote active collaboration, inviting peers to co-define shared goals, individual and collective responsibilities, respective communication styles and needs, relative approaches to conflict management, and shared understanding of and approach to accountability in support of achieving common goals
• Exhibit leadership practices that encourage commitment and action in peers
• Practice decision making that considers the welfare of others and fosters teams and communities that advocate for collective wellbeing and the common good
• Engage in critical reflection and principled dissent from perspectives or arguments made by peers
• Employ persuasion in support of an argument or cause among peers

• Active listening prompts that ask students to reflect on the meaning of ideas their peers share (during large-group discussion, pair sharing activities, collaborative learning exercises, peer mentoring conversations, etc.)
• Active listening prompts that ask students to generate questions intended to invite deeper or more nuanced sharing from their peers
• Reflection and synthesis prompts that ask students to identify perspectives shared by peers that added something new or distinct to the conversation and/or to their own understanding
• Prompts that ask students to identify underlying assumptions in their peers’ or their own ideas
• Prompts that ask students to explore the ways the various ideas or perspectives shared by peers offer a more nuanced understanding of a complex issue or problem
• Prompts that ask students to identify dynamics that actively foster collaborative learning (e.g., what is working in our approach to class discussion, small-group problem solving, or group activities)
• Prompts that ask students to identify an affirmation they can provide to a peer to acknowledge an idea they shared that was impactful or something they did that helped to foster a more effective or inclusive collaborative learning environment
• Prompts that ask students to identify dynamics that hinder collaborative learning (e.g., what is not working in our approach to class discussion, small-group problem solving, or group activities)
• Prompts that ask students to identify how they would frame constructive feedback intended to help a peer approach collaborative learning in a more effective or inclusive way
• Prompts that ask students to identify what they need from their peers for collaborative work to feel accessible, equitable, or inclusive (e.g., distribution of work, assigned roles, directness/clarity, communication styles or modalities, lead time, etc.)
• Prompts that ask students to identify ways they are actively inviting and/or affirming the participation of peers in support of collaborative learning (during large-group discussions, pair activities, small-group exercises, peer mentoring, collaborative projects, etc.)
• Prompts that ask students to identify ways their peers are actively inviting and/or affirming their own participation and contribution to collaborative learning (during large-group discussions, pair activities, small-group exercises, peer mentoring, collaborative projects, etc.)
• Self-reflection and self-assessment prompts that ask students to track their understanding and application of collaborative learning and development outcomes and skills

• Renee Wells, Institutional Equity and Inclusion Office
• Jill Murphy, Health Department
• Karen Lister, Psychology Department