Mass collaboration and learning: Opportunities, challenges, and influential factors

Abstract

Learning ecosystems can benefit from mass collaboration where large numbers of minds collectively drive intellectual efforts to learn in the form of knowledge building and sharing. Mass collaborative learning represents a significant shift away from traditional teacher-centered approach towards a self-directed model in virtual communities in which contributing members take on creative roles to maximize their learning and that of their peers. In order to design, implement, and exploit such a learning approach, influencing constituents should be identified, and appropriate conditions need to be provided. This study aims to systematically review recent literature with a view to identifying relevant affecting constituents and success factors for mass collaboration and learning-namely, the type of organizational structures, collaborative learning techniques, adopted technologies, and methods for evaluating the quality of both members' performance, and co-created knowledge. Therefore, 100 related papers are collected, and their findings are critically evaluated. The results of evaluation are then addressed and discussed.