Request for Help: Model for Deep Collaborative Learning?

I was consulting with Martha on my TLT Fellows project #1, which involves teaching a seminar in advanced macroeconomics. The seminar is divided into eight or ten topics, each of which has a list of scholarly readings: books, journal articles, etc. As the seminar progresses, we study the various readings, discuss them in class, and try to sort out our understanding of them.

This time, I’d like to build the seminar around a project to create a digital document, summarizing our findings and addressed to economics majors who have not taken the course. Ideally, we should be able to use this document as a resource for subsequent offerings of the intermediate macro course.

When I have attempted less ambitious projects along these lines, the resulting analysis has lacked depth. Martha suggested that what I may have been lacking is an effective model of collaborative learning that promotes deep analytical thinking.

While I have some ideas, I thought I would appeal to readers with more experience in this area than I have. Can you suggest one or more appropriate models?