Students’ experiences and perceptions of online collaborative learning in higher education of Korea and the UAE

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare the experiences and perceptions of UAE and Korean students in campus-based universities of online collaborative learning (OCL). 262 college students participated in online surveys. Their experiences in terms of frequency, assessment, barriers, support, and attitude for OCL in each country were examined. With Importance-Performance Analysis, the perceived importance of OCL activities was compared with actual frequency. Both countries’ students experienced group projects and group presentations the most frequently, while online collaborative writing and online group exams were rarely used. As barriers to OCL, UAE students pointed out language, gender, and privacy as the major barriers while Korean students mentioned students’ attitude and language. UAE students had more frequent experiences of and more positive attitudes toward OCL than did Korean students, although the two countries have similar cultural propensities.