Ok, this topic
was a tricky one…

Communication,
Cooperation, Coordination and Collaboration. How do we use these C-words in a
way that makes them useful in the discussion about online learning and online teaching?
I found it important for myself to define the terms in a desperate attempt to
understand this topic. Starting with the differences between collaborative and
cooperative learning, I found this video helpful:

Also, by clearly distinguishing the 4 C’s, I came closer to
an idea about how they interact with each other:

• Communication: The exchange of ideas and
  information
• Cooperation: Independent goals with
  agreements not to interfere with each other. 
• Coordination: Actions of users directed by a
  coordinator to achieve a common goal. 
• Collaboration: The process of shared creation;
  collectively creating something new that could not have been created by
  the individual users.

I especially like the wording SHARED CREATION. Here is really where deep learning starts to happen. With
different skill sets, world views, and ideas, we
can create deeper learning and something better than each individual would do
on their own. It is not simply the assembly of different peoples knowledge but
the collaborative creation of new, deep knowledge. The fancy name epistemic-engagement view is used in the field of e-learning.
Here, learning is assumed to emerge from social interaction (Larreamendy-Joerns
& Leinhardt, 2006). This, I guess, is the key to get collaboration
going. So how do we get the social interaction going in an online environment
and what is the result? An interesting study by Rimor et al. showed that in about 50% of online
discussions studied in their work,  integration, different opinions and
viewpoints, often via constructive criticism, encouraged the development of new
thoughts and ideas. In the rest on the other hand, the discussions did not
reach complex agreement stages and often ended up in rapid agreement which
indicates no change in the students perceptions. So, more needs to be done to
ensure that we go from communication, cooperation, coordination to
collaboration. Research in the area is needed to understand where we should put
our effort to make it work.

References:

Larreamendy, J. Joerns, G. Leinhardt,
Going the distance with online
education, Review of Educational Research, 76 (4) (2006),
pp. 567-605

Rimor, R, Rosen Y, and Naser K, Complexity of Social Interactions in Collaborative Learning: The Case of
Online Database Environment, Interdisciplinary Journal of E-Learning and
Learning Objects, 6 (2010)