Exploiting Network Technologies to Support Blended Learning and Collaborative Problem Solving in E-learning System

Educational benefits of online collaborative group work and blended learning have been confirmed in numerous studies for e-learning. Many of its advantages have been well cited including the development of skills of critical thinking, improved problem solving, knowledge discovery and construction of knowledge. However, a major challenge facing e-learning providers in the area of online collaboration and blended learning is the provisions of meaningful social experience and the emphasize of “live” mentor; need of virtual tutor that readily help learners in their difficulty; and sharing of learning materials that automatically accessed, modified and published among the groups. While this environment has been extensively studied and increasingly becoming an instructional approach, to the best of our knowledge, it has not yet been applied and exploited readily available network technologies to support online collaboration and blended learning. In this paper, we present an initial study of the use of social network media such as FB, YM, WLM, Skype to support social aspect of learning while Team-Viewer and NetMeeting act as “live tutor” and virtual support mechanism as well as the use of DropBox for sharing learning materials to support online collaboration and blended learning.