Collaborative Tele-Learning Issues and Observations

Abstract

Teamwork is a fact of modern organizational life. College graduates are expected to be able to work productively in teams. The ubiquity of information and communications technologies, particularly the Internet, has contributed to the globalization of education as well as business (Adam, Awerbuch, Slonim, Wegner, & Yesha, 1997), and has added a challenging dimension to the management of teamwork. Specifically, it poses the question, “How can remote team members collaborate effectively?” With access to the Internet and communication technologies, students can now engage in activities that require remote team collaboration. Thus, it is important to understand the issues associated with creating a learning environment in which university students might best learn to be productive and effective team members in a remote collaborative setting.