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=Students are provided with opportunities for cooperative and collaborative learning tasks. =

Evidence
‘The concept of collaborative learning, the grouping and pairing of students for the purpose of achieving an academic goal, has been widely researched and advocated throughout the professional literature’ (Gokhale 1995). Gokhale’s study shows that collaborative learning enhances critical thinking. However, online courses are often criticized for failing to provide meaningful student interaction and collaboration (Bullen 1998), even though online communication offers the potential for such collaboration (MacKnight 2000).

Liaw et al. (2007) describe three key considerations for e-learning: learning activities centre around learner autonomy and interactive learning actions, there is use of multiple media, and there are cooperative learning opportunities. Cooperation and collaboration helps learners to progress through their zone of proximal development by engaging in activities with others (Vygotsky 1978).

It is commonly argued that e-learning providers must encourage student participation online. However consensus over what this means is lacking as there is a wide range of ways in which learners can participate, from actively and frequently adding comments to discussion forums and chats, to merely ‘lurking’ and absorbing the dialogues of students and teachers. There are differences between simply tallying the number of posts that individuals make and asking them how much they feel they are participating. Thinking, feeling, belonging, doing, are all part of cooperation and collaboration (Hrastinski 2008). Online learner participation ‘is a process of learning by taking part and maintaining relations with others. It is a complex process comprising doing, communicating, thinking, feeling, and belonging, which occurs both online and offline’ (p. 1761).

Resources
In a review of how to teach critical thinking through online discussions, MacKnight (2000) explains how asking the right questions and providing the right sorts of discussion formats can enhance communication and collaboration among online students.

There is information on various interaction possibilities here: http://schoolforge.org.uk/index.php/Effective_eLearning_through_Collaboration

It must be noted that some studies have found no clear benefit of cooperative learning in some domains of e-learning, e.g. Krause et al. (2009). This means that the effects of various cooperative learning projects must be monitored on an ongoing basis.