PgCert Student-faculty Perspectives on Online Collaborative Projects: A case from Middle East College

Abstract

Teacher online collaboration has recently attracted more and more attention and interest in many parts of the world. Unfortunately, very little research, if at all, has been conducted so far in the Sultanate of Oman. The present paper sought to fill this severe gap in research by asking and finding answers to this central question: What beliefs and opinions do faculties hold towards online collaborative projects (OCPs)? It used a quantitative method approach through a questionnaire administered to a group of PgCert student-faculty group (n=50) from Middle East College to get to know about their perspectives concerning the questions set above. The results obtained revealed (a) a high positive feedback on the part of the study participants as to their involvements in online collaborative projects, (b) very different reports on issues faced when working on online collaborative projects, and (c) varying degrees of impacts of OCPs on their teaching practices. The results of the study will have tremendous significance to teachers in all fields of specialization who are/will be engaged in OCPs. The potential implications of these and other results on teacher practices and involvement in such OCPs are discussed