The Medium Is the Message--The Design of an Online Collaborative Learning Community.

This paper describes a constructivist and collaborative approach to transforming a traditional face-to-face on-campus course into an entirely Web-based course. The major objectives of this computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) course are for students to experience, learn and design online collaborative learning. This paper is based on the multiple experiences and perspectives of the course instructor, a course designer who also served as one of the moderators, and a student in the course. The purposes of this paper are to: (1) describe the design, implementation, and evaluation strategies used in this Web-based collaborative learning course; (2) examine the characteristics of the authentic environment designed to enable students to experience the strategies, opportunities, challenges, and benefits on online collaborative learning; (3) discusses the roles and benefits of using "e-sherpas" as a unique support system for online learning teams; (4) explore students' perspectives, reflections, and suggestions; and (5) discuss course evaluation results, lessons learned, and implications for design of online collaborative learning environments. (Author)