Stress caused by online collaboration in elearning a developing model

• Published in: Education & training (London) Vol. 45; no. 8/9; pp. 564 - 572
• Main Authors: Allan, John, Lawless, Naomi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: MCB UP Ltd 01.12.2003
• Subjects: Small to mediumsized enterprises; Stress
• ISSN: 0040-0912; 1758-6127
• DOI: 10.1108/00400910310508955

Online collaboration is becoming increasingly common in education and in organisations. It was believed that this could in itself cause stress for collaborators. An analysis of online learning diaries, phone interviews and questionnaires indicated that online collaboration could cause stress, and this stress was linked to the dependency of the collaborators on each other, and the level of their mutual trust. Stress could be designed out of online collaborative exercises through management of the online working processes. The trend in both education and management towards increased online working and collaboration indicates that further research needs to be carried out into finding how to reduce stress from this cause.