This study examined an ESL writing class, which consisted of 36 students, at a community college of Hong Kong. The students took part in three online collaborative writing tasks in the second semester of 2004-2005 by sending drafts to peers who gave them suggestions and comments for improvement and working together on the completion of the writing task via email.;The 36 students worked in small groups of four to six. They wrote, responded and revised using the email system offered by the WebCT interface of their course book. The results were evaluated by means of questionnaire, interview and participating students, report of the peer observer, written work, e-responses and reflective summaries of students.;As an introduction, the background of this study is examined. Then in Chapter 2, the notion of collaborative learning is explored with a close examination of its relationship with technology and the ESL writing context and a discussion of the related research literature. Following this, issues concerning online course design are discussed. In Chapter 3, the design of the study is given. Results and implications re presented in Chapters 4 and 5.;Results suggest that students generally enjoyed the supportive atmosphere created by online collaborative tasks and regarded the use of online collaboration as a means of improving their writing by enhancing their motivation, awareness of the audience and the importance of revising, and by reducing their stress and cultivating their positive attitudes towards writing, although some of them were found to have reservations about the effectiveness of peer feedback. The writer concludes that online collaboration does have potential in motivating ESL learners and bringing about positive learning effects on writing, but that the key lies in how it is managed and how effectively it is incorporated into the programs.

Distance education is, by its very nature, a response to the development of communications technology in the Industrial Era, coupled with the societal changes initiated by these developments (Garrison and Cleveland-Innes, 2010: 14). The current distance learning landscape is thus shaped by changing social needs brought about by the impact of advancements in technology. This case study investigates the effectiveness of new aspects of digital learning tools as additional resources in the TEFLA course, a Short Learning Programme (SLP), offered by UNISA. These aspects of digital course delivery introduce e-learning by incorporating synchronous and asynchronous digital teaching and learning tools, in the shape of MOOCs (asynchronous learning), as well as webinars (synchronous learning). This study reviews the effectiveness of these online tools in enhancing the learning experience of TEFLA students. The theoretical framework that informs this study is based on the connectivism and socio-cultural theories of knowledge acquisition. / English Studies / M.A. (English)