Using a grounded theory approach to study online collaboration behaviors

This paper discusses how an interpretive theory of action was explored and developed through iterative cycles of grounded theory generation. We establish our motivation for employing the grounded theory method in an area that is overflowing with theories of learning, then move on to the practicalities of generating an interpretive grounded theory by following the "vapor trails" left by online learners. We describe how we incorporated the use of mixed methods into an interpretive grounded theory process, with a theoretical sampling strategy that used "complementary comparison" to feed back into a new cycle of constant comparison. We discuss ways in which constant comparison may span researchers as well as data samples. Finally, we discuss how and why the substantive theory of action that was generated by this process provides an original and groundbreaking contribution to theories of collaborative online learning.