Abstract:

Most academic institutions encourage inter- and intra-institute and industry research collaboration. Experience suggests that there are usually several discussions and iterations during the drafting stage before the final paper is mutually agreed and submitted. To ease this process, when they work together on any research project, academics and industry professionals can benefit from using collaborative software or tools to produce their papers. This paper reflects on experiences of using Microsoft SharePoint Workspace as an example of a collaborative communication platform – or more specifically, a virtual research environment – to produce joint research papers, and presents recommendations for researchers interested in using this software for collaborative research.

The use of such groupware can be extended to other collaborative practices within the educational arena, such as assessment moderation and reviews. Students can also be encouraged to adopt such tools for collaborative group work in a virtual environment.

Keywords:

Collaborative, research, SharePoint, tool, moderation, groupware, virtual.