Classrooms as Learning Labs for Virtual Collaboration and Learner Agency: Collaborative Learning, Learning Lab, Agency, Threefold Path to High-Performance Virtual Teams

Instructors can adapt curriculum so that learners have the competencies needed for a fulfilling career working well with others, together or apart. A curriculum can easily embed teamwork, coach learners into good study habits, and teach them how to write, present, follow instructions, and think critically. Today's instructors guide learners to creatively imagine and innovate beyond perceived limitations, including distance and time barriers of online learning and remote work. Groups can be learning labs where learners work together, hold each other accountable, and deliver group assignments. Today's workforce must collaborate and work well with others. This chapter provides a framework for designing and managing online courses for creative collaboration. Instructors will share responsibility for a successful learning experience by engaging learners in decisions and creating future team leaders. The framework lays out three pathways that develop a workforce that is competent, innovative, connected, engaged, flexible, and virtual.