Collaborating Online

Rebecca submitted this information regarding collaborating online. She writes,

"Collaborative eLearning can be done asynchronously or synchronously and it allows students to glean knowledge and expertise from their peers and teachers to learn the content and concepts of the subject matter. This is especially true in project-based collaborative learning where each student is responsible for contributing to the project.  By engaging in a shared task, students are able to experience the benefits of group participation in solving a common goal and provide for them a real life example of how adults in business use teamwork to develop ideas and set goals.   

I came across a great book about this topic called, 'Collaborating Online, Learning Together in Community' by Rena M. Palloff and Keith Pratt, which focuses on strategies to use to include collaboration into eLearning instruction. The book itself takes a constructivist stance and advocates that users should be responsible for their own learning and that the content of the eLearning should be authentic and active." 

The book is available from Amazon.