Pedagogical Communication Patterns in Collaborative Telelearning

Abstract

Collaborative learning is an indispensable part of Telelearning Distance Education courses. It is naturally implemented via such activities as data collection, projects, and field studies. The worldwide revolution in the telecommunication environment that has been gathering momentum in recent years is bringing radical changes in the collaboration channels. To prepare for these changes, it is vital to identify and solve a wide range of educational and organizational problems involving the embedding of learning and teaching procedures in a telecommunication rich environment. This article is concerned with the pedagogical communication patterns between students and tutors. The result of evaluating students behavior in a set of telelearning Computer Science courses show that they differentiate between the personal dimension of communicating with others and the group dimension which enable true collaborative work. The former depends mainly on the extent to which they need help, whereas the later depends on the design of the group collaboration and the creative leadership of the class teacher or the tutor.