A literature review on facilitating on-line collaboration of learning teams : can education learn from business and other disciplines?

The information age has brought about profound social change in the ways we work, learn, and communicate. Within today's business environment the hierarchical work structures of the past are being decentralized creating the need for team-based organizations. This decentralization is slowly finding its way into higher education, as well, and challenging the traditional model of learning and instruction. In both business and education this team-oriented process is being pushed forward by the ever increasing use of technology; specifically computer-mediated communication and the internet. However, though changes have occurred and are occurring there is research to suggest that many learners are not being prepared to enter the world of teams and technology. Business has been dealing with teamwork issues for sometime, but for instructional organizations this new phenomena poses a challenge since the re are few examples of how to design and organize on-line collaborative learning environments. As an analysis of the literature this thesis is designed to introduce aspects of business literature, as well as other closely related topic areas such as group dynamics and computer-mediated communication technology, into the educational environment. The focus is on the strategies, suggestions and organizational aids that can be implemented as part of instruction to assist learners in becoming more effective on-line team members. Also included are suggestions regarding how the institutional environment and the technology can be structured and organized to help facilitate team collaboration