Engaged Learning Through Online Collaborative Public Relations Projects Across Universities

Abstract

Online learning is complementing and even replacing traditional face-to-face educational models at colleges and universities across the world. Distance education offers pedagogical and resource advantages—flexibility, greater access to education, and increased university revenues. Distance education also presents challenges such as learning to create effective online assignments that engage students, especially in public relations, where team-based learning and collaboration are key. Instructors from two U.S. universities—one comprehensive university and one research university—evaluated student performance on and feedback from a cross-university online team-based project. Emergent themes from student performance and feedback reflect research in scaffolding and engagement theory.