itslearning includes a number of collaborative tools designed to help teachers and learners read, comment on and improve other people’s work.

There are a number of ways that teachers and students can work together on the same document in itslearning, giving them the chance to inspire and encourage each other – and improve each other’s work.

Simple essay marking with process-oriented documents

Process-oriented documents allow teachers to comment on a learner’s text, in a similar way to hand-written comments on essays submitted on paper. Unlike paper however, process-oriented documents can then easily be revised. The student can read the comments, remove them and then make the changes.

Teachers can give a number of people access to process-oriented documents, making peer assessment and collaborative assessment simple.

Getting debates going with discussions

Online discussion forums are a great way to get learners participating in group debates. Because the discussions are string-based, students answer each others’ comments, enabling them to build up a line of argument– or argue through an idea – together.

DirectEdit makes sure documents are always up to date

With DirectEdit, multiple users can edit and save the same document. This ensures that everyone is always working in the latest version – and eliminates the need to email new versions of documents back and forth between numerous authors.