Design of virtual spaces for successful collaboration in technical and professional communication online classes

Technical and professional communication courses, whether conducted on-campus or online, benefit from the inclusion of student collaborative projects. But designing these projects presents a number of pedagogical challenges, challenges that are heightened in the online world but which at the same time lend themselves to amelioration as a result of the careful planning and technological interventions required by the constraints of distance instruction. Planning involves providing students with skills and tools for setting goals and outcomes, managing interpersonal conflicts, and devising strategies for decision-making and peer review. Electronic meeting systems (EMS) offer some exciting opportunities for enhancing online meetings and courses to engage students in problem-based learning. Breeze, an EMS, will be demonstrated at the IPCC Conference 2005 as a possible tool for online classroom and meeting room collaborations.