Abstract:

The following paper describes the learning process that occurred in three classrooms of approximately 45 advanced writers of composition studying academic writing and research at an American university in the Middle East. The students came from multicultural backgrounds which included African, Middle Eastern, Asian, European and American learners. These students as teachers used a collaborative editor to provide and support asynchronous learning first with their peers then virtually with peers in other classes. The learning objectives were to develop skills in locating and classifying scholarly data on a variety of topics, present individual research proposals for peer evaluation, and finally to produce an individual research project in composition form. During each stage of the process the students became the instructors and scaffolding the learning of others' through the use of live and collaborative teaching techniques. The investigation covered a range of topics from File-sharing and Fear to Faith, Family and War. The collaborative editing tools appeared to be less effective on the advanced writers than they had been with a similar sized group of novice writers with close demographic ties attending the same institution. Self-correction of writing errors increased more when the instructor provided feedback than peers. The learning reported by the students was described as supportive of critical thinking however the success of individual classes also appeared to be heavily influenced by course timing.

Keywords:

Collaborative learning, asynchronous learning, student research, peer learning, collaborative editor, course timings.