1. Walden University Tracy Snow

3.  Best practices  Interaction  Interactivity  Development of critical thinking skills  Co-creation of knowledge  Reflection  Transformative learning Palloff & Pratt, 2005

4. Instructors are always looking for ways to improve student interaction in classes. They understand that collaboration online is different than that of face to face. They may not have the necessary tools to make this happen successfully (Palloff & Pratt, 2005). Increasing opportunity for interaction is critical for online learning. Collaboration allows this.

6. Ling Thompson and Heng-Yu Ku from Regis University and the University of Northern Colorado conducted a case study to investigate the relationship between the degree of online collaboration and quality of group projects. They needed to find our how important collaboration was to online learners as they work on group projects, and how belonging to a community is essential in a collaborative learning experience (Kirschner, 2004; Palloff & Pratt, 2005). Their findings were based on four teams working in groups and their interactions. It was based on four different characteristics: participation, Interdependence, synthesis, and independence.

7. Project 1 & 2 Team 1Team 2Team 3Team 4 Total statements (participation) 952346686339 Interaction pattern(Interdep endence) 150189 New Ideas (Synthesis) 35269293221 Msg to Instr. (Independence 2910

8. Project 3 & 4 Team 1Team 2Team 3Team 4 Total statements (participation) 663n/a675219 Interaction Pattern (interdependence) 7n/a101 New Ideas (Synthesis) 294n/a29262 Msg. to instructor (Independence) 0n/a23

11. COMMERCIALIZATION There was no commercialization in this case study. For future studies, the need to implement technology will be investigated.  Degree of online collaboration and team performance.

12. Knowledge (professors realize the need to collaborate) Persuasion (Professors convince students to collaborate) Decision (Students decide or reject collaboration tools) Implementation (Students use the innovation of collaboration tools) Confirmation (Students reinforce the decision to collaborate and seeks to avoid discourse)

13. 1971 Email developed by Ray Tomlinson 1985 Development of virtual communities 1994 Ward Cunningham invented Wikis 1997 The term weblog was coined 2003 Skype was released, My Space becomes popular 2004 Web 2.0 released, Face book launched