Collaboration Training with an Eye Toward Outcomes and Assessment

Abstract

This essay discusses the importance of specifically including collaboration training on the list of student learning outcomes for first-year legal writing courses. This essay, titled Collaboration Training with an Eye Toward Outcomes and Assessment, was published in The Second Draft in Spring 2011. The Second Draft is a publication of the national Legal Writing Institute and is published twice each year. Through this publication, faculty share ideas and discoveries about teaching legal analysis, writing, and research.

The essay emphasizes the importance of collaboration and explains that collaborative work is a key part of students’ professional development. I propose that professors specifically add the performance of collaborative fundamentals to their lists of student learning outcomes (SLOs) and even use carefully crafted peer-review assignments to develop students’ teamwork, writing, and editing skills and assess their competencies.