Engagement in collaboration and teamwork using Google Colaboratory

Abstract

Google Colaboratory, or “Colab" for short, is a multiuser, collaborative environment that allows anyone with access to Google and the internet to write and execute arbitrary python code through their browser. With recent calls to increase use of computation in physics education, Colab has the potential to be a valuable tool to allow students to collaboratively code together—particularly in an online environment. Through this work, we examine how student teams navigated collaboration challenges related to using Colab in an online environment to conduct data analysis for a course-based undergraduate research experience in physics. We analyze students’ final written assignment of the course, a “memo to future researchers," through the framework of socially-shared regulation of learning, to understand the challenges, regulations, and perceived goal attainment students discussed relating to their experience programming in teams online with Colab. We found that students struggled with version control issues when simultaneously writing, editing, and saving their work. This led to the need to use socially-shared regulatory strategies, including assigning and rotating roles from week to week and having clear, regular communication. Highlighting these students’ experiences and their advice to future researchers can help inform instructional guidance on how to best promote productive teamwork in collaborative coding environments both online and in person.