Collaborative Keys: Writing as a Tool for Discussion

Headshot of Laura Le.
Laura Le
Biostatistics and Health Data Science
School of Public Health

Laura Le is a Senior Lecturer in the Biostatistics and Health Data Science division within the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota. She teaches courses including Biostatistical Literacy, Biostatistics I & II, and Teaching Statistics. Her passion is statistics education, mainly applying research to practice in the areas of teaching and curriculum and assessment development/improvement. Outside of work, you can often find Laura talking about food and coffee, creating some yummy Midwestern baked goods from her kitchen (procrastibaking, anyone?), napping, being active (playing sports, running), doing puzzles, and reading fiction (currently reading an Agatha Christie book (her first!) and a middle-grade novel called The Green Ember).

Laura spoke to WAC Assistant Director Jessa Wood about her assignment. Her responses have been summarized below.

Check Out Laura’s Assignment

Please describe your assignment.

Collaborative Keys are an active learning technique that provides students with the opportunity to work together to create an answer key for any activity or assignment. A collaborative Google Doc is used to provide continuous engagement in the learning process. Students jointly generate and refine answers while teachers provide real-time feedback. Especially in online courses, Collaborative Keys help foster a sense of community, with authentic interactions between students and between students and teachers.

I co-developed this technique with my colleague Ann Brearley, and we have been using them in our courses (both in-person and online) since 2014. Over the past decade, faculty at least eight peer institutions have also adopted the approach.

How does this assignment work in your class?

I primarily teach asynchronous online courses, and Collaborative Keys works really well for building a community of learners by creating opportunities for having students to interact around a shared task. Everyone has to contribute at least once, but many contribute more than once. I have also used Collaborative Keys for in-person courses, and they function more as the answer key (rather than capturing a discussion) for the activity we did in class.

Collaborative Keys are useful as a formative assessment or assignment. I think of courses as having three components: the learn component (e.g., lecture, readings), the practice component (e.g., activity), and the assessment component. So this is part of the practice component to allow students to solidify and expand on their learning and get feedback prior to being assessed on the concepts.

I currently use this assignment with graduate students who are often older working professionals, and it works really well for letting them engage amidst all their many obligations. I grade them based on completion, rather than correctness, as I don’t want students to feel anxiety about giving an incorrect response. Rather, I see the asynchronous collaborative key as taking the place of what a discussion would feel like in a classroom. For undergraduates, it needs a lot more structure—giving more guidance and deadlines about the expectations for participation, putting them in smaller groups, and perhaps grading on quality.

Based on the work being done on Collaborative Keys at multiple institutions, we know Collaborative Keys can be adapted to any learning modality (e.g., in-person, hybrid, synchronous online, asynchronous online), different student populations and class sizes, and a variety of assignments. For example, in synchronous courses, Collaborative Keys have been used to work through homework that students have just turned in, so that they can get timely feedback on their understanding.

How are Collaborative Keys different from typical online assignments like discussion boards?

A typical approach for “active learning” in an online, asynchronous class is to have students respond to a couple of discussion questions via a discussion board. Often the requirement is that students need to contribute twice: once as an initial response to the question and then a reply to somebody else. These are so common in online teaching that learning management systems (like Canvas) have settings for the instructor to “hide” responses until someone has an initial post.

I gag at this approach because it's not a natural way of learning or discussing a topic, and for me it doesn’t capture the natural interactivity of an in-person discussion. (Note: I’m not against this technique, and it may have a time and place for some courses, but as a student, it felt like a forced conversation that I didn’t want to engage in. As a result, I dreaded taking online courses as part of my program.) There’s not a sense of why we’re engaging in the discussion forum in this way (i.e., post one and then respond), and good ideas can just die because no one picks them up.

In contrast, Collaborative Keys are supporting students' learning and getting them to practice the topics and concepts while they’re learning them. By having a task that has a clear goal and contributions can take on more natural forms of discussions, that’s where the magic happens. And contributions entail more than just “here’s my answer to this question.” Seeing their peers' responses, students can say, "Am I on the right track? I didn't think about it in that way” or “I didn’t quite understand this question, but here’s what I wrote….” Sometimes a student might be able to describe something better than I can as the instructor. And writing to your peers and seeing how they respond provides motivation and a rationale for why you’re doing this. It’s finding a different way for folks to interact that is more meaningful, rather than just having them post responses that can be superficial. We’re engaged in cooperative learning, where there is individual accountability and there’s positive interdependence—we are all in this together. 

An additional perk (from an instructor standpoint) was being able to bring my personality to the Collaborative Keys in an asynchronous, online course. I post a lot of ol’ school :), add gifs or trivia questions, and provide affirmations for interactions or answers that were exemplary. Students are able to “see me” and understand my passion for teaching without having to be in a classroom with me.

How has the assignment impacted students?

Students often say that Collaborative Keys make an online course feel more like an in-person course because of how much they’re engaging in discussion. I would argue it’s even a richer discussion because (1) makes students’ thinking, questions, and approaches visible, which makes an impact on solidifying and refining their learning, and (2) it continues throughout the week rather than being limited to a single class session. Students have time to consider one another’s ideas, respond, revise their thinking, and build on the conversation.

Students also describe the Collaborative Keys as providing valuable opportunities to practice and apply new concepts before being assessed on them. The collaborative and low-stakes nature of the activity creates a safe learning environment to learn from each other and not be stressed about providing an incorrect answer (as they know the feedback from their peers or me will improve their learning). They can also see how their peers approach a problem, sometimes in ways that are different from or even conflict with their own approach. Collaborative Keys create this magical virtual environment where students can take risks, receive feedback, and solidify their understanding as they work towards understanding the material.

What advice would you give other instructors who want to develop a Collaborative Key for their course? 

Just do it. If you're struggling with getting grading done in a timely manner, wanting to be more involved with students’ discussions and be able to give feedback, or with helping students engage and have really meaningful discussions, especially in an online course, Collaborative Keys can be a great option.

What We Like about Laura’s Assignment

  • Collaborative writing: Laura provides an explicit process for students to engage collaboratively and share responsibility for the document.
  • Honors multiple approaches and ways of knowing: Laura makes space for students to share multiple ways of successfully navigating a problem or explaining their answer.
  • Writing to learn: Students are invited to use writing to solidify their understanding, share and examine their thinking, and clarify points of confusion.
  • Authentic audience, writing as a social process: Students write to a real audience--their peers, instructor, and TAs--and interact through their responses. 

Check Out Laura’s Assignment

Learn More about Laura’s Assignment

  • Laura is hosting a Teaching with Writing workshop on Collaborative Keys on October 15, 2026. Learn more and register.
  • Laura is happy to consult with others interested in adapting Collaborative Keys to their courses. The WAC team is also always available to consult on writing-related teaching questions, including the development of Collaborative Keys.

AI acknowledgement: Zoom AI and Gemini were used to produce a clean transcription of Jessa and Laura’s conversation.