Synchronous collaboration in distance education: a case study on a science course

This paper describes our experience with introduction of synchronous collaborative problem solving activities in the frame of a distance learning computer science undergraduate course of the Hellenic Open University (HOU). Groups of students worked collaboratively at a distance in order to build a flowchart of an algorithm to a given problem. The technological and organization issues involved, the first findings of analysis of peer student interaction during this study, as well as some general implications for distance education are discussed.