Collaboration in Higher Education on Geographically Dispersed Locations : A Postphenomenological Study

Technological advancements reshape societies at large and with that changes in behavior and the way in which people live and work follow. Education is no exception; technology enables students to attend courses independent of time and place. This thesis attempted to explore and develop an understanding of how students who study at a distance in higher education use technology to collaborate and how they experience collaboration. The philosophical base is postphenomenology and both interviews and observations have been conducted in order to collect data. Findings showed that a range of technologies were used to collaborate; both technologies for communication, storing of documents, brainstorming and screen sharing. Only the initial contact between fellow students were made through the technology that the university itself provided whereas the continued communication often took place elsewhere, chosen by the students. Although emerging technologies offer a vast range of opportunities for communication and collaboration, these were not always experienced as seamless. Diverging from previous literature where distance education has received critiques on not being able to fully replicate traditional studies; findings showed that the differences from traditional studies made students choose distance studies over traditional studies. Thus the value of distance studies relies on what actually differs them from traditional studies.