Evidence confirms that students’ understanding of how to effectively use these
technologies to collaborate is limited (Margaryan et al., 2011). For example, Abbitt’s
(2010) study of the use of wikis in student collaboration projects found that while the
students were able to use the wiki to post or share information, they were unable to
grasp how to actually collaborate with fellow students via the wiki. Participants in the
study demonstrated a surface-level ability to utilize the wiki from a technical
perspective but did not fully embrace the power of collaboration and the give-and-take
inherent in the operation of a wiki.
Given the clear indicators that most workers will need to collaborate in a virtual
work environment, the evidence that specific abilities are needed to do so, and the
general lack of virtual collaboration skills of university students, it seems that
educators should focus on developing students’ abilities to collaborate virtually
(Tavcar et al., 2005). Similar to other communication skills such as writing and oral
presentation skills, we suggest that the development of virtual collaboration skills is