Exploring Technologies for Building Collaborative Learning Communities among Diverse Student Populations

Collaborative learning has long been recognized as an effective approach to enhance the learning process. The purpose of this research was to investigate mechanisms for building an inclusive collaborative learning community outside the classroom that connects students with diverse backgrounds and ultimately enhances students’ learning experience. To accomplish this, we conducted a study using blogs and user groups to support virtual collaborative communities in our upper division computer science courses. Our results show that blogs are an effective tool for bringing together these diverse student groups to create an inclusive learning environment.