The general trend is that students who report improved socioemotional outcomes also show suggestions of increased activity in collaborative tools relative to their peers.

In this sample, 1,868 students enrolled in at least one undergraduate class with, and at least one undergraduate class without, some form of collaborative activity (peer review, Piazza, CourseNetworking, etc.), not including discussions.

Similarly, social annotation tools such as Hypothesis provide opportunities for students and instructors to interactively engage in a shared resource of interest wherein problems, challenges, and insights can be discussed.

We estimate that students performed 1.16% points (95% HDI [0.65–1.66]) better in their undergraduate courses with collaborative activities, compared with the same students’ performance in undergraduate courses without collaborative activities.

Lately, metrics related to social usage and online comment have gained momentum — F1000Prime was established in 2002, Mendeley in 2008, and Altmetric.com (supported by Macmillan Science and Education, which owns Nature Publishing Group) in 2011.