Student perceptions of a collaborative online learning environment

This study explores student expectations and perceptions of a collaborative online learning environment, how these perceptions changed based on their experience in the class, and which factors most influenced these expectations and perceptions. The setting of this study was a graduate-level online course emphasizing collaboration. Participants were interviewed at the beginning and end of the semester, and the results were analyzed according to grounded theory.; The emergent theory is that student expectations and perceptions of a collaborative online course are most influenced by prior information available about the course, students' previous education experience, individual differences, and students' online collaboration skills. By understanding these mechanisms, instructors can design collaborative online courses to adjust these expectations and perceptions and improve student learning.