CORAL: Collaborative Online Research and Learning Group

CORAL is a multidisciplinary collaborative task force composed of members at various universities who have been dedicated to creating and testing a model for the integration of technology with collaborative teaching and learning (e.g., Chamberlin, 2000; Treadwell, 1999; Treadwell, Leach, Kellar, Lewis & Mittan, 1998).

The CORAL group believes that classrooms should provide places where students have the opportunity to be learners actively working together on a specific learning objective, a goal endorsed by the Forum on Technology in Education (U. S. Department of Education, 1999) and others (e.g., Dede, 2000). Therefore, the model developed by the CORAL project has used the Internet as a collaborative tool connecting university-level students in varied disciplines and at distant sites in an effort to complete a joint project.

The CORAL pedagogy fosters the development of skills in using computer and video-technology as tools to enhance effective collaboration in college courses. The CORAL model cultivates three major objectives:

integrates several different teaching and learning styles, thereby providing a more inclusive learning format:
structured by the professors, but led by the students fostering independent thinking and active learning,
promoting interdependence by having students share the division of labor by formulating roles and tasks that compel students to reach consensus.

Within this framework students are encouraged to seek outside opinions without fear of being criticized.