An Exploratory Study of Teacher-Required Out-of-Class Academic Collaboration among Students at a Polytechnic in Singapore

Academic collaboration among students takes place not only inside classrooms but outside of class as well. This study investigated such out-of-class academic collaboration among students at a polytechnic in Singapore as they worked on assignments on which their lecturers had required them to collaborate. Data were collected via a questionnaire completed by 232 students, interviews were conducted with 10 lecturers, observations were made of eight student groups as they collaborated on teacher-required work outside of class, and then interviews were conducted with these eight groups. Suggestions are made for enhancing this collaboration.