Physical Therapy Education: The Feasibility of International Collaborative Assignments Using E-mail

Journal of Physical Therapy Education, Spring 2004 by Williams, Marie, Feldman, Robert

While the outcomes from this collaborative assignment demonstrate that It is a feasible way of assisting learning, it could be argued that the some of these learning outcomes could be achieved by conventional didactic or individual assignment learning tasks. What additional skills or learning can be achieved through collaborative ventures, particularly using electronic communication such as e-mail? A constructivist perspective of learning contends thai knowledge is constructed by learners through social interaction with others and emphasizes the ability of learners to solve real-life problems.12 Collaborative learning tasks, particularly those involving students of the same profession In different geographical or cultural settings, therefore, provide ample opportunities to develop skills in communication, accessing information, recognizing und negotiating difficulties, and achieving the content knowledge forming the basis of the learning task.

CONCLUSION

With careful and considered educational and resource planning, collaborative assignments between geographically distant but similar professional training programs is feasible and has the potential to expand professional curricula. While e-mail is the simplest and most economic communication medium that permits collaborative ventures between universities, the existence and further development of dedicated, shared Web sites, particularly where student self-publishing (posting directly on the Web site without an administrator or Webmaster) is encouraged, will permit greater educational opportunities such as peer review.

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