Internet support for collaborative learning in workgroups

Abstract

This paper intends to describe an ongoing experiment that provides a collaborative learning method applied to a case study in higher education. With this purpose, a computer-based support on World Wide Web is developed, by means of which, a virtual classroom environment is provided to carry out asynchronous and distributed work. This environment facilitates a time -and -space independent communication among users in order to plan groupwork sessions; this support reduces both the assessments on the part of the teacher and classroom overcrowding problems. In addition, two collaborative environments in the classroom are identified: the first one, among the members of a group and, the second one, among groups in the classroom.