Comprehensive classification of collaboration approaches in E-learning

There are a number of approaches to learning such as traditional approaches (teacher-centered) and collaborative approaches (learner-centered). Nowadays, the concepts of collaboration and social interactions are the major trends in education. Therefore, many researchers embrace these concepts to offer the educational field enhanced learning environments which are supported by communication and collaboration techniques. The adaptation causes the existence of varied approaches which are addressing the collaborative learning techniques. As a result, there is a need for a mechanism to study those approaches and highlight their eminence. The aim of this paper is to give a comprehensive overview about the state-of-art in collaborative learning, especially by integrating social media tools. To do so, the study adopts a classification framework based on four different views (subject, purpose, method, and tool). The framework has been used to compare ten collaborative e-learning approaches. The finding indicates the potential of all approaches in developing an online learning environment for remote collaborative learning despite the lack of fulfilling all the requirements highlighted in the four views.