CSCL, Anywhere and Anytime

The FernUniversität in Hagen uses the web-based collaborative learning platform CURE to implement different collaborative learning scenarios such as seminars or lab courses. In these scenarios, students form groups and collaboratively solve tasks given by the teachers. Interviews with students that have used CURE showed major interest in using CURE nomadically without the need for permanent internet access. Nomadic use would allow students to work with CURE content at any time and place while maintaining the advantages of a shared, synchronized CSCL environment once they are online again. In this article, we describe which requirements we have identified for a nomadic use and how we extended CURE to fulfill these requirements.