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This case study reports how graduate students learned in a constructivist online course in educational telecommunications. The study investigated the ways students learned to use technology and learned to collaborate in small groups as they learned online. The students used a collaborative workspace and several other Web tools to conduct independent and collaborative activities. Solutions to problems of using technology and learning collaboratively online included getting to know each other, respecting individual differences, negotiating meaning with others, and self‐regulating. The study contributes to an understanding of key design elements for online courses: a delicate balance between structure and dialogue in transactional distance, and the development of a sense of community.
Murphy et al. (Mon,) studied this question.