Supporting collaboration in global software development through e-learning

Abstract

The paper provides an overview of a research study conducted over a period of one year as part of a three year project on supporting global software development learning teams. Emphasis is given on the role of e-learning in supporting the coordination, communication and collaboration in geographically dispersed learning teams. The paper describes how e-learning was used to facilitate teams from five different universities residing in US, UK, Turkey and Panama to work towards a number of global software development pilot studies. The paper focuses on instructional design issues by discussing the e-learning setting provided. Furthermore, the paper discusses key considerations relating to the project's strategy towards collaborative learning and the design of e-learning tasks. © 2009 IADIS.