How Teachers Can Develop Student Collaboration Skills with PDFs

Socialization is a fundamental aspect in schools. From learning how to manage social surroundings and make new connections, students are constantly interacting with each other. Whether in person or online, educators must integrate collaborative learning into their lesson plans. Creating collaborative assignments with Foxit PDF Editor will solve this problem by providing online joint workspaces. Learn more about how students and teachers can benefit from teamwork with Foxit PDF Editor.

Why use collaborative documents?

Foxit PDF Editor helps classrooms create better documents through collaboration. Basic documents prevent students from sharing ideas with peers and professors. Sharing PDFs allows for a collective document experience complete with multiple users editing a single document and adding comments. Bridging the gap between teachers and students can be daunting, but collaborative documents enhance the learning environment for all students. Whether your class is working on a mobile or desktop platform, you will be able to view and respond to each other’s comments and edits.

Some platforms limit joint practices to sharing comments and notes regarding a document over an email thread or through a chat/messaging tool. Educators using Foxit PDF Editor can collect feedback and comments from their students in one place. Students have access to a full set of commenting tools including sticky notes, highlighter, line and shape drawing tools, stamps, and a typewriter tool to mark documents created by their fellow classmates.

To make this a true team effort, all participants can view and respond to one another’s comments, fostering a true online classroom environment that helps develop the best learning experience possible.

Classroom collaboration with Foxit

Collaboration in school settings is essential for student success. With Foxit PDF Editor, students can effectively connect in online settings as well as in the classroom. Students can bounce ideas off each other or highlight areas of focus for further questioning. Creating group assignments is easy with the addition of collaborative documents. From adding comments to highlighting key ideas, students learn to organize their own teams while gaining a deeper understanding of the course material. Teachers can look back at students’ assignments and add constructive feedback for group work.

In schools and beyond, the need for teamwork on projects and communicating with others is essential. Teachers must effectively integrate peer collaboration into their lesson plans to prepare students for a world of future group work and adequate socialization. Students who can efficiently and effectively work together will be prepared for their grade level goals ahead of them.

Students also utilize this feature to share notes, textbooks, and ask questions. Education is a team effort and providing a nonjudgment space for further understanding will help students develop their own learning styles. Using shared PDFs brings social annotation to light as students read and think together within the digital learning space.

Utilizing PDFs in the collaborative process expands student knowledge of document creation tools to more than just word documents. Turning to tools such as Foxit PDF Editor will open the door toward teaching online teamwork. Students learn to manage their time, delegate tasks, and experience how others prioritize work and learning.

PDF sharing can be initiated within Foxit PDF Editor which is included in the Foxit PDF Editor Suite Pro for Education. Educators can host PDFs within a shared workspace or share with users via email. Teachers who create collaborative PDFs can manage document reviews they initiate and view the status of each student’s document. Learn more about other PDF tools for education.