Collaborative Learning via the Internet

Certain researchers suggest that a teaching method which encapsulates collaboration and interaction would likely work well within the framework of Internet based distance education courses. In order to verify how interaction and collaboration work between students in distance education courses, we observed and researched two undergraduate university courses offered via the Internet. All communications were text based and in asynchronous mode relying upon e-mail, group discussions and hypertext navigation to facilitate the collaborative work process. This exploratory study has enabled us to identify some problematic elements which can hamper collaboration between distance education students. For example, even though most of the distance education students enjoyed communicating with one another, with the professor and with the teaching assistant, the collaborative learning assignments were not always a successful endeavour. To begin with, some students complained of technical difficulties which greatly hampered communication, interaction and collaboration with distant partners. Other students, who had a good technical knowledge of the Internet, had trouble developing a working relationship with out of province or overseas partners. Another interesting observation was the fact that some autonomous, highly independent students preferred working alone. They felt that the collaborative tasks placed undue constraints on their personal work schedule. From these results, we developed recommendations for ensuring the success of collaborative assignments for future Internet courses.