Jigsaw in the time of pandemic

Based on our positive, but limited experience with Jigsaw at the university level, half a year ago we initiated a more extensive experiment with a larger sample of students, and incorporating changes that relate back to some negative comments we have received during the previous course. Jigsaw is a collaborative inquiry-based learning technique that works by dividing the learning material into different tasks and the class into different groups. What set out to be a controlled experiment in increasing motivation and participation through collaboration, turned into a much more complex scenario due to the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic, which gave us some interesting results to report. We have seen more positive results this year than the last: the number of students that felt that Jigsaw requires more effort than traditional methods has fallen, they consistently thought that Jigsaw improved teamwork, and they felt they have learned more from their expert peers as the experiment advanced. Some of the results may be due to the confinement forcing people stay indoors, with no social outings and fewer distractions - so more time to study. Another factor that may be relevant are the implicit expectations that were set by the confinement about distance learning and the need to cooperate.