Collaboration at a distance: improving collaborative efforts in a distance-education environment

Though the promise and problems of classroom collaboration are well known to most teachers of writing, collaborating in a distance education (DE) environment opens up more potential benefits and different potential problems. DE collaboration mimics business collaborations that create their own working conditions, allowing students to create a productive academic environment. By being alert to the potentials problems of DE collaboration and by introducing students to successful collaborative approaches, an instructor can maximize the possibilities of DE collaboration.