Collaborative learning in networked classrooms: a new landscape in higher education

Transformations in the social and educational context of higher education are happening in response to real world pressures associated with graduate employability and the rapid advances and modernisation in technologies. Networked classrooms offer an innovative solution to this situation by generating technology-enhanced, collaborative learning spaces in conjunction with new and redesigned teaching methods. In line with the advances in technologically-enhanced networked spaces in higher education, James Cook University's offshore campus in Singapore (JCU Singapore) recently remodelled and redesigned one classroom with the ProVEOS Wireless Learning Technology (WLT) system. It is this networked classroom that forms the basis of the research reported in this article. Three hypotheses are examined in this study, they concern: communication, learner satisfaction, and student engagement. Surveys of student participants of networked classrooms demonstrate that communication is fostered, learner satisfaction is reported, and greater student engagement is evident when using the networked classroom