Accepted Manuscript

A scoping review of cloud computing tools for collaborative learning: Opportunities

and challenges to the blended-learning environment

Hosam Al-Samarraie, Noria Saeed

PII: S0360-1315(18)30116-7
DOI: 10.1016/j.compedu.2018.05.016
Reference: CAE 3359

To appear in: Computers & Education

Received Date: 8 March 2018

Revised Date: 20 May 2018
Accepted Date: 22 May 2018

Please cite this article as: Al-Samarraie H. & Saeed N., A scoping review of cloud computing tools for
collaborative learning: Opportunities and challenges to the blended-learning environment, Computers &
Education (2018), doi: 10.1016/j.compedu.2018.05.016.

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 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT
A scoping review of cloud computing tools for collaborative learning:
Opportunities and challenges to the blended-learning environment

Hosam Al-Samarraie & Noria Saeed

Centre for Instructional technology and Multimedia, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia

Corresponding author: Hosam Al-Samarraie

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Corresponding author email: hosam@usm.my / myclasy@gmail.com

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Abstract
The use of online collaborative learning activities has been notably supported by

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cloud computing. Although specific reference has been made to a certain online
application or service, there has been no clear understanding of how different cloud

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computing tools have shaped the concept of collaborative learning, and the extent to
which these resources are accessible to today's students. Thus, a review of the
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literature was conducted to identify studies on cloud computing tools for collaborative
learning in a blended classroom. The review of the literature led to the inclusion of 29
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relevant studies categorized as synchronized tools, Learning Management System

(LMS) tools, and social networking tools. The review results revealed a set of
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evidences supporting the use of certain cloud computing tools for certain collaborative
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learning activities categorized under sharing, editing, communication and discussion.

The key opportunities and challenges associated with the use of these tools in a
blended learning context were also identified and discussed. Findings from this study
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will certainly help academicians, practitioners and researchers to understand the

potential of using cloud computing environments from a wider perspective.
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Keywords: collaborative learning, distance education and telelearning, learning

communities; lifelong learning

SHORT BIO
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Hosam Al-Samarraie, is currently a senior lecturer in the Centre for Instructional

Technology and Multimedia of Universiti Sains Malaysia. Hosam’s general research
area is in Human Computer Interaction. His research interests include application of
Brain Computer Interfaces and eye-tracking to examine users’ behavioural changes
toward a system design and functionalities. Lately he has focused on approaches of
data mining for clustering and predicting users’ usage patterns of system in different

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educational contexts.

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Noria Saeed, completed a Master of Education at the University of Science Malaysia.
She is interested in the role of ICT in Higher Education, especially the consequences

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of using technology in promoting both society and scientific institutions.

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A scoping review of cloud computing tools for collaborative learning: Opportunities and
challenges to the blended-learning environment
Abstract
The use of online collaborative learning activities has been notably supported by cloud computing. Although
specific reference has been made to a certain online application or service, there has been no clear understanding
of how different cloud computing tools have shaped the concept of collaborative learning, and the extent to
which these resources are accessible to today's students. Thus, a review of the literature was conducted to
identify studies on cloud computing tools for collaborative learning in a blended classroom. The review of the
literature led to the inclusion of 29 relevant studies categorized as synchronized tools, Learning Management

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System (LMS) tools, and social networking tools. The review results revealed a set of evidences supporting the
use of certain cloud computing tools for certain collaborative learning activities categorized under sharing,
editing, communication and discussion. The key opportunities and challenges associated with the use of these
tools in a blended learning context were also identified and discussed. Findings from this study will certainly

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help academicians, practitioners and researchers to understand the potential of using cloud computing
environments from a wider perspective.

Keywords: collaborative learning, distance education and telelearning, learning communities; lifelong learning

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Introduction
Current technological advances are playing a key role in the development of formal education sector by
providing multiple modes of learning delivery and communication that can meet, at low cost, the demand for

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continuing education. Ultimately, the question of interest for policy makers is how to employ modern
technology to engage distant learners in collaborative learning sessions. Furthermore, given the continuous need
for capacity building of universities in developing countries, educational policy makers have no option but to
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exploit technological and pedagogical advances in the formal education sector. Thus, cloud computing and its
applications are vital to the future of distance education worldwide.
Cloud computing is defined as a scalable Information Technology (IT) enabled capability in which
resources of the computing infrastructure are provided as services over the Internet (Sang, 2013; Yu, Wang,
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Ren, & Lou, 2010). These services are "service models" (e.g., software, platform, and infrastructure) and
"deployment models" (e.g., private, community, public, and hybrid) that together provide ways to deliver cloud
services. In higher education, cloud computing services are commonly used to provide the means for students to
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collaborate and interact in a distributed learning space (Alcattan, 2014; Guoli & Wanjun, 2010). It has the
potential to support advanced teaching and learning processes in the sense of developing one’s collaborative
social interaction during the problem-solving activities, reflections, knowledge sharing, and idea generation
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(Attaran, Attaran, & Celik, 2017; Kop & Carroll, 2011).

In a collaborative context, cloud computing have been the focus of educational researchers, mainly to
overcome the problem of tacit knowledge transformation in an online/blended setting (Uden, Liberona, &
Welzer, 2014). It enables instructors to communicate with their students, particularly to discuss and learn certain
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learning tasks. Despite the importance of cloud services in today’s teaching and learning, little is still known
about its application in the higher education context. In addition, although specific reference has been made to a
certain online application or service, there has been no clear understanding of how different cloud computing
tools have shaped the concept of collaborative learning to extend the reach of resources to today's students
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(Bouyer & Arasteh, 2014). According to Akin, Matthew, and Comfort (2014), promoting the use of innovative
technologies as a regular part of the learning experience among university students has remained a challenge.
An important dimension of this problem is getting future educators to integrate educational technology as a
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regular part of their approach to instruction (Abbitt, 2011). Previous studies (e.g., Mtebe, 2013; Mtebe &
Kissaka, 2015; Porumb, Orza, Micu, & Porumb, 2012; Selvi & Perumal, 2012) addressed the importance of
using certain cloud computing tools for promoting specific collaboration learning activities that may contribute
to individuals’ learning experience of, and reactions to, blended learning environments. Based on these
observations, it is anticipated that understanding the benefits, trade-offs, and constraints of the cloud computing
to improve teaching and learning can potentially increase the extent of instructors and policy makers’ interest
towards integrating technology into the curriculum. In addition, although researchers have repeatedly proven the
effectiveness of collaborative learning on achievement and engagement of students (Quaye & Harper, 2014),
combining cloud computing into the blended learning environment for collaborative learning purpose is still in
its infancy stages.
Keeping in mind the current shifting of higher education towards on-demand learning, this review has the
following objectives. First, it attempts to provide a coherent understanding about cloud computing tools used in
broadly defined educational sectors, targeted at increasing accessibility and sharing of learning resources among
students, to build on earlier work in this area and a recent publication that highlights the major opportunities and
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challenges of these tools for learners to engage in online collaborative practices, and to extend others’ similar
syntheses (González-Martínez, Bote-Lorenzo, Gómez-Sánchez, & Cano-Parra, 2015). Second, we attempt to
further the theoretical knowledge base of technology utilization towards providing collaborative means for
students and instructors to share and discuss various learning matters. We also highlight areas in which
knowledge is as yet weak or inconclusive, thus offering a research and development agenda for the future.
Finally, a timeline indicating relevant studies was provided as a ready reference source of information on the
utilization of cloud computing tools for promoting collaborative learning in a blended learning environment.

Method
In this work, two research questions were investigated: ‘What are the main cloud-computing tools and
features used for online collaborative learning activities?’ and ‘What are the major opportunities and challenges

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of these tools?’ In order to provide an in-depth understanding of these aspects, we explored the literature as the
main source for answering these questions. The study was framed on the framework proposed by Tranfield,
Denyer, and Smart (2003) for conducting a review research. Terms such as cloud computing tools, cloud
computing applications, and cloud systems were interchangeably used in this study to describe the use of cloud

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computing in a blended collaborative learning setting.

Searching and screening

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The database search included articles covering the role of cloud computing in higher education. A number
of electronic databases were used to retrieve potential articles such as Cambridge Journals Online, Index to
Theses, Oxford University Press (journals), Science Direct, ERIC (Education Resources Information Center),
Emerald, Taylor and Francis Group, and IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers). Since the term
‘cloud’ was firstly introduced in 2006, our search was conducted from 2006 to 2017. We used different

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combinations of keywords when we executed the search, such as "cloud computing for online collaborative
learning”, “collaborative learning in the cloud”, “cloud services for collaborative learning activities”, “cloud and
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collaborative participation”, “cloud collaborative learning in higher education”, and “cloud-based collaborative
learning in a university context. The retrieved articles were then stored and prepared for further screening and
selection. Certain inclusion criteria were imposed in order to exclude studies that are not within the focus of this
review. The criteria were as follows, studies are:
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1) empirically oriented.
2) using cloud computing for collaborative learning.
3) focusing on specific or multiple collaboration activities.
4) involving university students.
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A total of 430 articles from the mentioned databases were retrieved and screened. However, only 200
articles and 10 theses were found to meet all inclusion criteria. From these 200, articles that did not use or
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adequately discuss the role of cloud computing tools in higher education were excluded. This yielded 40
promising articles and 5 theses (see Figure1).
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Figure 1: Flow diagram of article selection process

The 45 studies were assessed for quality by three experts, as explained in the following section.
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Quality assessment
A score from 1-3 was given by three experts in the field upon meeting the following conditions:
1. How appropriate is the research description related to the use of cloud computing?
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2. Are the activities clearly described in the text?

3. How appropriate are the methods and analysis?
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4. How relevant is the particular focus of the article (including context and sample) to our study?
5. Can the findings be trusted in answering the questions?
6. How generalizable are the outcomes to the target participants?
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The weight of each article was assessed based on the available evidence calculated by summing scores on
each of the six dimensions provided by the three experts (18 scores). We considered an article to be low quality
(1) when it receives 6 or less score; medium quality (2) when it receives 7-13 scores; and high quality (3) when
it receives more than 13 scores. The inter-rater reliability (r) result obtained for all articles was .93, showing
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good agreement between the experts regarding the quality of the selected articles. The quality check of the
articles showed that 19 articles were categorized as high quality, 10 articles were categorized as medium quality,
and only 4 were categorized as low quality. Although the available information in the selected articles may
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serve a certain purpose, only articles with high and medium scores were included in this work (29).

Results
The review of the literature on the role of cloud computing tools in promoting blended collaborative
learning practices led to the inclusion of 29 studies (see Table 1). Since cloud computing tools were mostly used
for different collaborative purposes and activities, we decided to categorize these tools based on the nature of its
utilization in a blended-specific situation. These were synchronized tools, Learning Management System (LMS)
tools, and social networking tools. The purpose of this categorization was to help us distinguish the various
purposes emerged from using different cloud computing tools in higher education. The social networking tools
consist of using Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Skype for interpersonal communication, sharing, and
discussing views on certain topics. The synchronized tools consist of using private systems that are publicly
available for use such as Google apps, Microsoft, Zoho apps, Dropbox, and Prezi). LMS tools consist of using
university systems (such as Moodle and Blackboard) to support group of learners to document, track, and report
on various educational activities.

Table 1: Studies on cloud computing for collaborative learning
NO.
Study
1. Blau and Caspi (2009)
2. Bakhtyar and Afridi (2010)
3. Edwards and Baker (2010)
4. Rimor, Rosen, and Naser
(2010)
5. Bennett and Pence (2011)
6. Kop and Carroll (2011)
7. Lampe, Wohn, Vitak,
Ellison, and Wash (2011)
8. Miseviciene, Budnikas, and
Ambraziene (2011)
9. Schneckenberg, Ehlers, and
Adelsberger (2011)
10. Tan and Kim (2011)
11. Denton (2012)
12. Zhou, Simpson, and Domizi
(2012)
13. Al-Ismaiel (2013)
14. Al-Rahmi and Othman
(2013)
15. Zheng, Cao, Zheng, Chen,
and Hong (2013)
16. Ku, Tseng, and
Akarasriworn (2013)
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Purpose Outcomes
Investigated differences in students’ sharing and collaboration using Google Doc. Collaboration in Google Doc was superior to sharing, that students preferred discussion over
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editing.
Investigated the potential effect of ZOHO as a cloud collaborative learning Majority of students found ZOHO to provide them with an effective, efficient, and
platform on students’ writing development. satisfying collaboration writing experience.
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Investigated students’ self-efficacy and perceptions towards using Google suite. Positive significant differences were found between students’ self-efficacy and perceptions
when using Google Documents and Google Presentations.
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Examined the interaction patters of students when using Google Docs to engage Students’ communication in Google Docs helped develop complex patterns of interaction
in various collaborative activities. while performing the task.
Explored the potential of using Google Docs for managing research projects and Cloud tools decreased the time required for students to create various components of the
developing experiments for the organic laboratory. experiment and made the work more efficient.
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Investigated the effectiveness of using Moodle and Twitter for developing Cloud computing tools helped build students’ confidence by taking a more creative
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creativity in an open networked learning. production step.
Examined students’ perception towards using Facebook for classroom-related The use of social media tools increased students’ self-efficacy and perceived motivation to
collaborative activities. communicate with others.
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Studied the effectiveness of cloud-based email systems in supporting the process The use of cloud-based email systems was found to be effective for collaboration activities
of teaching and learning. in e- and blended learning settings.
Studied the potential of Google Apps. (Google Docs and Site) and Twitter in Google Apps as a collaborative and interactive technological platform fostered the
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aiding students’ understanding of pedagogical conditions to establish a competence development of students’ online responses.
competence orientation in e-learning.
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Investigated the effect of Google Docs and Google Presentation on students’ Students held relatively positive perceptions about using Google Docs for a group project.
perceptions.
Investigated the effects of Google Sites, Docs, Drawing, and Presentation on Students perceived the use of cloud tools as an effective method for understanding the
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students’ learning about assessment. concept of assessment.
Evaluated the effectiveness of using Google Docs in an out-of-class collaborative Students found Google Docs to be a useful tool for group work. Yet, it had no effect on their
writing. paper grades.
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Examined students’ collaboration in the Blackboard environment. Students exhibited limited development of meaning making due to lack of details in their
responses.
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Examined student' satisfaction with Facebook in a collaborative setting. Students found the service to be useful and easy to use which promoted their engagement
and satisfaction.
Reported the potential of using Baihui Docs and Baihui chat for promoting Baihui environment, in general, promoted collaboration activities among students but with
shared learning practices among students. some limitations.
Examined the effect of Blackboard on team members’ satisfaction in a Blackboard cloud was found to provide an effective learning pedagogy that promoted
collaborative learning activity. students’ satisfaction with collaborative learning.

17. Rowe, Bozalek, and Frantz
(2013)
18. Stevenson and Hedberg
(2013)
19. Engellant (2014)
20. Sun and Shen (2014)
21. Kurtz (2014)
22. Liao, Wang, Ran, and Yang
(2014)
23. Othman and Musa (2014)
24. Schneckenberg (2014)
25. Suwantarathip and
Wichadee (2014)
26. Kirchner and Razmerita
(2015)
27. Qin, Hsu, and Stern (2016)
28. Sun and Shu (2016)
29. Huang (2017)
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Investigated the potential of using Google Drive as a collaborative authoring Google Drive facilitated the development of students' critical attitudes towards knowledge
environment in clinical education. and authority in a clinical context.
Investigated the feasibility of using Google Docs for real-time online The use of cloud supported collaborative tools helped students to effectively interact with
collaboration. others in shared spaces that contributed to the development of their online skills.
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Investigated the effect of using the VAST learning system on students’ learning The use of online collaborative-based cloud tools increased students’ learning outcomes.
outcomes in a computer literacy course.
Examined the effectiveness of Teamwork as a Service “TaaS” in promoting TaaS facilitated teamwork by increasing learners’ capabilities to share information with
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learners’ preferences and capabilities. others.
Examined the effect of using Facebook on students’ perceptions about their Facebook helped students to actively participate in a collaborative task which developed
learning and participation in collaborative activities. learning outcomes.
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Evaluated the effectiveness of a learning model called the Collaborative Learning The CLC model increased students’ positive perception about its effectiveness in learning.
Cloud (CSC) to solve the problem of instructor–student imbalance in the current
e-learning applications.
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Investigated the effects of Facebook on students’ academic performance in a Social media platform influenced the collaborative learning practices among students by
collaborative learning setting. facilitating interaction with peers, interaction with supervisor, engagement, perceived ease
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of use, and perceived usefulness.
Investigated the potential of collaborating in Google Apps for promoting Google Apps promoted factors related to cognitive, emotional, spatial and group levels
students’ learning in the design of management classrooms. which led to substantial changes in teacher/student roles and behaviors.
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Assessed the impact of Google Docs in developing students’ collaborative Google Docs group gained higher mean scores than those working in groups in a face-to-
writing abilities. face classroom.
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Examined the effect of various social media sites on students’ satisfaction with Cloud computing tools increased students’ satisfaction by conducting the learning task more
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online environment. effectively.
Studied the effectiveness of using Google Drive and its relationship with team The teamwork quality and computer self-efficacy were found to significantly affect the
members’ performance. usage of cloud-based collaboration services among team members.
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Studied the effectiveness of using blended learning scheme such as Baihui to Baihui was found to be an effective solution in the classroom which helped to stimulate
stimulate collaborative activities. students’ learning interest and enthusiasm.
Explored students’ intention to use Prezi, Google Docs and Google Slides as Students’ intention to use cloud was found to be positive.
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collaborative learning tools.
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Synchronized tools
Engaging students in active learning experience via synchronized web applications is accompanied by the
progressive development of system functionalities to accommodate certain collaborative learning goals. The
review of the literature showed that most cloud computing tools are particularly used to support group members
in editing online documents, along with exchanging thoughts and insights related to the subject matter. This
typically involves writing comments and participating in peer-review sessions, which, as a result, lead students
to engage in a collective generation of knowledge. The literature showed that Google Apps can be used to
promote students’ collaboration by providing a rich medium for them to carry out various synchronous and
asynchronous editing, comment writing, and other sharing options essential for facilitating real-time learning
among group members. It comprises of Google Drive, Docs, Site, Gmail, Calendar, Talk, and Video. These
applications were mainly used to provide an online means, such as through the online word processor,

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spreadsheet, and presentation applications to enable students to take an active role in coordinating interactions
and to communicate freely (ÓBroin & Raftery, 2011).
So far, Google Docs was the main tool found to stimulate students to reflect on their own experience by
increasing their intrinsic motivation that lead them to feel like autonomous contributors to the learning process

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(Roda & Luiz, 2016). The functions of Google Docs, such as uploading a file, creating and sharing a document,
and collaborating with others (Liu, Lan & Ho, 2014), are useful for informing the development of students’
cognitive processing strategies, such as elaboration, organization, and collaborative peer learning strategies

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(Cheng and Chau, 2013). Blau and Caspi (2009) noticed significant improvements in students’ sharing of
resources when using Google Docs for written assignment in which students were found to prefer suggestion
over editing. This led Stevenson and Hedberg (2013) to argue that such an atmosphere may encourage students
to effectively interact with others in shared spaces by developing their online sharing skills and make
meaningful connections between individuals through presenting scenarios related to their task focus. This is also

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evident from the work of Edwards and Baker (2010), who found a positive significant improvement in students’
self-efficacy and perceptions by using Google Docs and Google Presentations. Independent learning results
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from having students contribute to the discussion process and raise questions not previously considered can
potentially decrease possible problems related to students' communication competence.
In addition, Google Drive was also found to facilitate the development of students’ critical attitudes towards
knowledge, particularly by means of comments and feedback (Rowe et al., 2013). The functions provided by
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this tool can help group members list files and folders, list file revisions and download files relevant to the
collaborative process. Previous studies (e.g., Qin et al. 2016; Schneckenberg et al. 2011) have also addressed the
potential of using spreadsheet (such as Excel’s Solver) for facilitating students’ problem solving collaboration.
This includes the use of features for sorting, filtering, formatting, and graphing information in order to help
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students efficiently analyze problems and develop solutions to the collaboration task. Such use would greatly
contribute to developing the overall teamwork quality and individuals’ computer self-efficacy. Based on these,
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Google Apps seemed to offer an interactive technological platform that can contribute meaningfully to the
competence development of the students, thus improving students’ perceptions of their capabilities to carry out
collaborative activities in these environments. It is anticipated that Google Apps can be used to promote factors
related to cognitive, emotional, spatial and group levels and that, accordingly, may lead to substantial changes in
teacher/student roles and behaviors (Schneckenberg, 2014).
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On the other hand, a contradictory view, about the effectiveness of Google Apps in collaborative practices,
was expressed by Zhou et al. (2012), who stated that, although students perceived Google Docs to be a useful
tool for group work, it still had no effect on their grades. This, however, was not in line with other previous
works, like that of Suwantarathip and Wichadee (2014) who demonstrated the effectiveness of using Google
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Docs in advancing group members achievement scores as compared to those who learned in face-to-face
classroom settings. It is possible that students’ communication in Google Docs helped group members develop
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complex patterns of interaction while performing the task (Rimor et al., 2010).
The literature also showed that the use of Prezi (a presentation software) has been claimed to improve
students’ intention to collaborate online with their teammates, particularly by providing an easy and useful
medium for clarifying problem solving situations (Huang, 2017). It can help create dynamic and informative
presentations in which multiple learners can collaborate, and share a common workspace for demonstration
purposes (Hamid & Rahman, 2016). In this environment, students can immediately see any changes made by
other members of the group in real time (Huang, 2015). The main features of this tool are the infinite canvas and
nonlinear presentation style that can facilitate students’ knowledge acquisition and production skills (Chou,
Chang, & Lu, 2015). Strasser (2014) found that carrying out collaborative activities on Prezi may potentially
lead the students to create a sense of creativity important to develop unique ideas for sharing. Based on this, it
can be anticipated that when students are equipped with the required functionalities for creating, modifying,
reflecting, and generating solutions, they are likely to efficiently process unstructured problems in learning
specific tasks.
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Despite the popularity of Google Apps, Zoho (online productivity tools), distributed through Baihui, has
frequently been used to provide a collaborative platform for Chinese learners. It deliver an ideal platform
(similar to the one offered by Google Docs and Presentation) from which group members are able to edit and
present relevant information in their environments (Zheng et al., 2013). Bakhtyar and Afridi (2010) stated that
using Zoho would offer solution for students to actively engage in collaborative writing as it facilitates group
sharing and discussion of ideas in an interactive manner. In addition, Sun and Shu (2016) found that using
Baihui in the classroom can facilitate the development of students’ learning competencies in the sense of
stimulating learning interest and enthusiasm among group members through active communication.
The literature also showed the role of cloud-based email systems (i.g., Windows Live SkyDrive, Windows
Live Spaces, Microsoft Shared View Beta, Microsoft Outlook Live, Windows Live Messenger, and Windows
Live Alerts) in establishing collaborative group communication intended for educational use (Miseviciene et al.,

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2011). According to Wang, Chen, and Khan (2014), these tools offer engaging activities in which students can
modify and use the knowledge they gain, and interrelate the different ideas in multidimensional networks.
Higher education practitioners can also use the plug-in for Moodle within the Office Online suite to deliver
collaborative activities in a holistic manner (Alshwaier, Youssef, & Emam, 2012). Based on these observations,

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it can be concluded that synchronized collaborative web applications such as Google Apps, Prezi, Zoho/Baihui,
and cloud-based email systems have the potential to support online collaborative practices by providing the
efficient sharing and editing medium, essential for improving students’ online learning skills.

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LMS tools
The literature showed that most of the commonly used LMS have facilities to offer varied forms of
communication for collaborative knowledge construction. An example is the use of Moodle on Azure to allow
students from different places to access the online materials, and also to track progress of the group work (Wang

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et al., 2014). A search of the literature revealed the application of Blackboard to create a rich, engaging
experience by enabling students to build a constructive dialogue in which solutions to complex problems are
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clarified, unstructured thoughts are explored and where through a process of dialectic a shared understanding is
achieved with other members (Griffiths, 2011). This can be attributed to the fact that Blackboard contains the
necessary tools (including discussion boards, blogs, and wikis) for instructors to implement various
collaborative pedagogies capable of shifting the focus from the instructor-student interaction to peer
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relationships. Such flexibility would be particularly important to increase students’ satisfaction with the learning
process, with minimal effort on the students side (Ku et al., 2013). Blackboard features that facilitate productive
collaboration include chat, email or forums. In addition, Blackboard can provide the group leader in the
synchronous collaboration environment with tracking features essential for monitoring individual contributions
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to group work, as well as providing a permanent record of participation to aid in assessing individual and group
progress in the collaboration task (Hershey and Wood, 2011). The review showed that students’ collaboration in
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Blackboard can increase their motivation by adding the necessary level of support needed for students to
experience a sense of connectedness and competence (Svobodová & Hedvičáková, 2017). It can be also
anticipated that using Blackboard would properly make students feel they can add their own independent views
on the learning topic within which a wide range of modifications and sharing can be performed. Yet, when the
competence level of the group is low, students in the Blackboard module may find it difficult to construct
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meanings that go beyond the learning context (Al-Ismaiel, 2013).

Moodle is another open source of e-learning application, widely adopted by educational institutions that
enables students to share and collaborate in a varied task condition. Its application within the higher education
comes in different forms, for example, it can be operated along with mobile cloud-based learning ‘Teamwork as
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a Service or TaaS’ to maximize the benefits students receive when collaborating in teams of certain capabilities
and preferences (Sun & Shen, 2016). Kop and Carroll (2011) explored the effectiveness of learning on a
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massive open online course, commonly known as MOOC, in developing students’ creativity. They found that
using MOOC (video and discussion forums) could potentially help build students’ confidence by experiencing
the spark that drives them towards taking the creative production step.
This review revealed the potential of using the VAST learning system (Mu, 2005), particularly to help
students produce creative ideas that can be easily accessed in the form of a browsable, sortable, searchable, and
paginated list of ideas. For example, VAST features such as tracking and monitoring the time spent by each
student on each activity can be used to maintain members’ interest and attention throughout the collaborative
activity (Engellant, 2014). Such practice was argued to provide a vital input to team innovation processes when
collaborating on complex tasks through which video learning objects are presented to group members
(Engellant, 2014). However, the adaptation of VAST in higher education was found to be very limited, which
may raise the question of its specificity in collaborative group learning. Another tool, called Collaborative
Learning Cloud (CLC) model was developed to provide the learning support for collaborative discussions in
China. Liao et al. (2014) stated that such tool can alleviate the tension between limited instructional resources
and too many learning support demands.
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Based on these observations, one may say that LMS-based systems can serve as an excellent model for
engaging students in collaborative learning activities that are less dependent on social aspects and presence. For
instance, open forum discussion in the LMS can increase students’ self-concepts and aid their interest to actively
participate in reflective conversations. Experiences from these practices can inform the development of
students’ ability to negotiate meanings of the concepts under discussion with other group members.

Social networking tools

The recent movement of educational policy makers to promote the use of social networking applications for
fostering collaborative learning among students has resulted in positive outcomes. In general, several previous
studies considered using social network sites as a means of providing adequate medium for students to
effectively build connections between learners, and between them and the instructor (Cheung, Chiu, & Lee,

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2011; Greenhow & Lewin, 2016). At the same time, social networking tools can facilitate collaborative
knowledge sharing among group members through encouraging them to participate in the process of
collaborative inquiry (Rambe 2012), which can aid the development of students’ communication skills to
engage in productive reasoning and creative thinking processes.

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With many studies relying on certain social media tools to aid the collaborative sessions, Facebook, Twitter,
Skype, and WhatsApp were found to be the most used tools for collaborative learning purposes. The general
perception in the literature was found to favour the use of these tools along with other synchronized

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collaborative web applications, mainly to ensure that students have greater access to the collaboration process.
For example, Kirchner and Razmerita (2015) stated that using Facebook, Skype, and WhatsApp with other
Google apps and LMS tools would increase students’ satisfaction by helping them understand the challenges in
their teamwork and react accordingly in order to maintain the flow of the discussion. In addition, the association
between different functionalities of social media tools may significantly aid the interaction between group

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members (Kurtz, 2014). For instance, social networking functionalities for sharing resources can help students
to effectively exchange views and knowledge through which they are likely to engage in active learning
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behavior (Al-Rahmi & Othman, 2013). The review of previous studies revealed the role of social media tools to
stimulate discussion and sharing of resources among students through facilitation and synthesizes of their
emergent knowledge in relation to others (Lampe et al., 2011).
In addition, the use of social media tools allow users to view, like, comment, and exchange ideas, thus
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leading to close collaboration and engagement between team members (Vaidyanathan and Sudarsanam, 2016).
For example, attempts for exchanging ideas among group members in the Facebook environment can be
facilitated through the chatting window, which enable students to participate in live discussions and
communicate their concerns about some specific content knowledge remotely with other members of the group
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(Sockett and Toffoli, 2012). Facebook can also make it easy for group members to achieve more familiarity with
each other and establish an increased level of trust (Charlton, Devlin, & Drummond, 2009), which is essential
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for the collaborative knowledge building process. Barczyk and Duncan (2013) addressed the potential of
Facebook tools such as Groups, Slide Share and Questions in providing an effective information-sharing tool
that can eventually facilitate intercultural dialogue and critical thinking among group members. Moreover, the
Facebook platform can be used to provide users with more extracurricular activities (Kirschner and Karpinski,
2010) that would enable them to organize their information in ways that reflect their meaningful relationships to
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the collaboration task.

Meanwhile, Twitter has been used to facilitate learners sharing of their opinions in the form of tweets, links
to additional resources and quotes extracted from video lectures and learners (Sugawara et al., 2012). According
to Honey and Herring (2009), Twitter has the potential to aid students’ sharing of ideas and coordinating
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activities, similar to instant messaging in a way that can allow them to disseminate the course to their followers.
More precisely, when students feel the presence of social interaction in the task, they are more likely to take an
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active role in collaborative learning activities. This include providing group members with a more structured
presentation of ideas relevant to the collaborative task. Students’ experiences from such settings would help in
the provision of their cognitive skills, thus reducing extraneous load and enhancing essential processing. The
free text option found in Twitter can help students express their feedback to other group members’ postings.
Based on these, the collective individualism in the social networking environment might offer a strategic guide
for students to meet the requirements of contemporary university study (Tay and Allen, 2011). In addition,
outcomes from the collaborative activities in social networking environments can help students achieve high
levels of self-esteem and performance.
Table 2 maps the association between certain cloud computing tools and collaborative activities in a
blended learning setting. From the table, it can be seen that students were using these tools, particularly to
establish group discussion, sharing, and editing of learning materials. Discussion was mostly facilitated by
instant messages and live chatting used interchangeably by students when collaborating on projects. File sharing
and editing were also common practices mostly provided by synchronized collaborative web applications
(Google Apps) in which Google Docs was the most commonly used tool to alter an idea or inputs to the task.
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Table 2: Associations between different cloud computing tools and collaborative learning activities
Activities
Platform
Sharing Editing Communication & Discussion

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Online discussion
Files / Document

Files / Document

Instant message

Internet Forum
Cloud computing tools

Video -Audio
Conferencing

Live chatting
Presentation

Comments
Drawing
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Mobile

Design

E-mail
Screen

Posts
Web

Synchronized tools
• G Suite for Education
• Google Drive
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√ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
√ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
√ √ √ √ √ √ √ √

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• Google Docs
• Google Slides √ √ √ √ √ √ √
√ √ √ √ √

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• Google Sheets
• Google Site √ √ √
• Google Drawing √ √
• Dropbox √ √ √ √

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• Microsoft Live@ Edu √ √ √ √ √ √
• Prezi √ √ √ √
• Zoho √ √ √ √

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• Baihui online √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
Social networking tools

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• Skype √ √ √ √ √ √
• Facebook √ √ √ √ √ √ √
• Twitter √ √ √ √ √
• WhatsApp √ √ √ √ √
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• Podio √ √ √ √ √
LMS tools
• TaaS √ √ √ √
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• CLC √ √ √
• Blackboard √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
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• Moodle √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
• VAST √ √ √ √
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Opportunities and Challenges of Cloud Computing Tools
A number of opportunities have been addressed by previous studies from using different cloud computing
tools in higher education. The common opportunity from using these tools was mainly to facilitate students’
interactions in real-time by offering a series of participative learning activities, which centre on reflection and
dialogue among students. Specifically, previous studies on the use of social networking tools to promote
collaborative learning activities were seen as an effective means for students to experience a sense of ownership
of the learning process (Kurtz, 2014), and to direct the student to go over questions along with other students
(Othman & Musa, 2014). Furthermore, the use of Facebook can potentially reduce classroom equivalence by
providing rich communication cues that can facilitate rapid exchanges of resources and solutions among
students to a given problem (Lampe et al., 2011). Schneckenberg et al. (2011) showed the potential of using
Google Apps with social media tools to support competence development among group members. This is

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because the sharing functionalities in social media enables students to compare the learning process and
outcomes within and among others. In addition, students’ proficiency and familiarity with social networking
sites allow them to actively engage in multiple and collaborative social interaction, social reflection and social
problem solving experiences.

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The review showed that the common opportunities derived from using synchronized related tools for
collaborative learning was mostly devoted to saving the time students spend on e-mailing, revising, saving, e-
mailing back, and other similar activities, thus developing their collaborative learning competency and

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productivity (Huang, 2017). Precisely, the use of Google Apps such as Google Docs was frequently reported to
provide opportunities for students to edit the same document at the same time or asynchronously (Tan & Kim,
2011). When a group of students collaborate to solve difficult problems in Google Docs, they are more likely to
be able to put some ideas into practice and receive immediate feedback on their work performance
(Schneckenberg, 2014). In addition, students can easily create a customized data entry forms with minimum

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training (Bennett & Pence, 2011), which makes it easy for group members to readily support interactive
preparation of documents and files (Qin et al., 2016). Such practices can ultimately reduce the cost associated
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with providing specialized labs to support group collaboration. Previous studies also addressed the role of social
networking tools in providing students with alternatives to solve complex problems (Rimor et al., 2010), mostly
via monitoring the syntactic, semantic and structural development of activities over time (Stevenson & Hedberg,
2013).
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Using LMS tools for collaborative learning can potentially enable instructors to provide relevant examples
to the online task as well as structuring a well-defined and well-organized instructions (Ku et al., 2013).
Furthermore, group members in the collaborative process can acquire deeper knowledge through the available
discussion channels that would enable them to shift the course format from solely individual activities to
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collaborative one (Engellant, 2014). For example, sharing and editing functionalities in the Baihui platform
allow students to build connections with others, which is essential for the development of their communication
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skills and participation in problem solving tasks (Sun & Shu, 2016). In addition, opportunities offered by TaaS
may help establish a culture of trust within the team members (Sun & Shen, 2014). Similar to Google Apps,
some LMS tools allow instructors and students to keep records of their collaboration works so they can refer to
them in subsequent discussions.
Despite these opportunities, some challenges were also addressed in the literature from using cloud
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computing in collaborative learning activities. The common challenge from using cloud computing tools was
related to providing a reliable Internet access for ideas to be incorporated and understood within and between
group members. Students in the one group may also experience social loafing and lack of trust that can be
resulted from different backgrounds of team members. This, as a result, may reduce individuals’ participation
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and intention to share knowledge in a collaborative activity. Previous studies revealed that using social
networking tools are yet to incorporate the pedagogical principles essential for ensuring meaningful learning
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(Kurtz, 2014). As such, learners are expected to spend more time to build their confidence and to experience the
creative production step (Kop & Carroll, 2011). Members’ focus from the topic of discussion can be easily
shifted when replying friends, reading other posts, etc. (Lampe et al., 2011), which would ultimately distract the
overall collaboration process.
With regards to the challenges associated with the use of synchronized tools in online collaborative
learning, the low-technology competence was found to be the main barrier for faculty members, since it required
considering changing the traditional teaching practices in order to be able to use technology to supplement
collaborative learning plans (Schneckenberg et al., 2011). Examples of this include lack of effective strategies
for improving communication, coordination, balance of member contributions, and mutual support (Qin et al.,
2016). According to Blau and Caspi (2009), some group members may feel that while they did not exacerbate
the document they read or edited, others may negatively impact the quality of their work when adding their
suggestions. In addition, technicians are required to learn the cloud architecture in order for them to effectively
develop and maintain the learning system (Tan & Kim, 2011). With regard to students' performance in
collaborative group learning, instructors may find it difficult to distinguish the work of one member from
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another (Stevenson & Hedberg, 2013; Zhou et al., 2012). Moreover, students are likely to face incompatibility
issues related to the formatting of Google Apps with certain Web-based applications. This is evident from the
work of Suwantarathip and Wichadee (2014) who showed that the issues of variation in knowledge arise from
using new functionalities, which may also contribute to students’ low participation rate in a collaborative
process. Besides, independent and original thinking are not supported in online Web applications due to the
social stress created by the group members, where longer learning practices or discussion can harm aspirations
and lead some students to refrain from stating views or expressing opinions (Rimor et al., 2010). In another
word, when the students are exposed to various grouping configurations and online sources, they may not be
able to adequately identify solutions or make informed decisions about their learning. This may negatively
influence their ability to actively engage in the discussion; transfer new knowledge to novel situations and
settings; make connections and relationships between facts, thus hindering the development of independent and

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original thinking.
Some of the LMS challenges associated with collaborative practice are related to the difficulties in
mastering the technology, which may limit its practical application (Al-Ismaiel, 2013). For example, prior
technology experience of undergraduates (especially first-year students) may not be enough for them to use the

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LMS effectively. Moreover, students may still find it challenging to organize and manage different ideas in a
way that enables them to link and share their individual tacit knowledge, especially when students in one group
are allowed to provide different answers to one aspect of the discussion, thus creating confusion among all

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group members (Liao et al., 2014). Students are also likely to be distracted when using the chat tools in the LMS
platform, which can result in exchanging unrelated contents and ideas between students. This is subjected to the
students' typing speed when attempting to convey their views to other members about the problem under
discussion. Finally, other limited design options and functionalities may negatively influence students’ control
of the collaborative process (Bakhtyar & Afridi, 2010). Table 3 presents a summary of the key opportunities and

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challenges of using different cloud computing tools.
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Table 3: Opportunities and challenges of cloud computing tools
SOCIAL NETWORKING TOOLS
• Provide a sense of ownership of the learning
process.
OPPORTUNITIES
• Allow student to go over questions along
with other students.
• Reduce classroom equivocality.
• Support competence development.
• Encourage intelligent content in real time,
multiple and collaborative social
interactions, social reflections and social
problem solving.
• Students may need more time to build
confidence and to experience the creative
production step.
• Lack of trust among group members.
• Lack of effective pedagogical principles.
• Connectivity related problems.
CHALLENGES
• Learning about others may distract students
from learning.
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SYNCHRONIZED TOOLS LMS TOOLS
• Save valuable time that would be otherwise spent e-mailing, revising, saving, e-mailing back, etc. • Help view examples in a well-organized way.
• Allow multiple users to edit the same document at the same time or asynchronously. • Facilitate deeper discussion among students.
• Allow students to create customized data entry forms with minimum training and identify the • Allow shifting the course format from solely
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status of modifications. individual activities to collaborative one.
• Compel approach to instruction where constructivism and cooperative learning serve as the • Help establishing a culture of trust within the team.
theoretical backdrop. • Allow students to keep records of their collaboration
• Increase the efficiency of information distribution and present a practical means of changing works.
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practices.
• Offer rich interaction that help students to put some ideas into practice.
• Stimulate associative thinking and creative problem solving.
• Make it easy to readily support interactive group preparation of documents and files.
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• Reduce the cost for providing specialized labs to support collaboration among group members.
• View the syntactic, semantic and structural development of the collaborative document over time.
• Provide students with immediate feedback.
• Support competence development.
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• Encourage the development of alternatives to solve complex problems.
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• Higher education institutions are required to change their teaching culture. • Difficulties to master the technology.
• Fear of unwanted changes among group members. • Managing different ideas is difficult.
• Inability to access the document when Internet access is not available. • Receiving different answers may create confusion.
• Students are required to learn how to use the software. • Using chat tools may distract students from
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• Computer technicians are required to learn the cloud architecture. exchanging related ideas to the subject matter.
• It is difficult to convince busy faculty (or students) to take the time to learn a new procedure. • Limited design options and functionalities.
• It is difficult to keep track of each group members’ contributions.
• Incompatibility of the doc formatting with certain Web-based word processing applications.
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• Require sufficient hardware and/or software.
• The technical language used may not be familiar to students
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• Social stress can be created by the group members.
• Adherence to the group’s learning rate or level of discussion can harm aspirations and lead some
students to refrain from stating views or expressing opinions.
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Final Remarks
Figure 2 shows the commonly used cloud computing tools in blended higher education classrooms, and the
types of functionalities and services used to stimulate certain collaborative activities. Our review of the literature
revealed different opportunities emerged from using different cloud computing tools in a university context.
From this perspective, it is anticipated that Google Apps may potentially aid the collaborative learning process
through group members’ evaluations of what is taking place during the discussion. It can be also used to foster
coordination among group members through case presentation, idea sharing, mutual problem-solving, and role
playing. Experiences emerged from these interactions could help students in identifying and processing the
relevant source of information, thus creating exploitable knowledge. In addition, this study found that the type
of services offered by most synchronized tools have the ability to promote continuous learning by providing the
main elements of personalization, customization, and accessibility to guide students in the collaborative process

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and to gain more control over the task. The fewer restrictions placed on group discussion in real time using these
tools can be the reason for students to experience effective learning as they explore specific concepts and
monitor their progress on their own, which would positively contribute to their self-regulated collaborative
learning.

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Yet, the use of Google Docs and Presentation seem to be limited to certain out-of-class collaborative
writing and reflection activities, where group members are expected to post comments on other members’ works
for discussion and fine-tuning. The limited use of Zoho and Baihui in countries other than China might make it

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difficult for us to see the full advantage of these tools in other collaborative contexts. This review showed that
collaboration services offered by social networking tools have the ability to break down barriers associated with
students’ diverse experiences and backgrounds arisen when using LMS tools alone. LMS tools supported by
social media sites would help provide a window into the students’ thinking processes by stimulating social
interaction between them, especially when collaborating to solve ill-defined problems. This is because when

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free communication criteria are imposed between students for collaboration task, they are more likely to bring
their different educational choices to improve skills and enable knowledge generation. However, students may
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occasionally be distracted by a preference for task-switching from the specific post or contacts associated with
their social network page. It can be said that instructors’ use of LMS tools from different social media sites can
lead to adoption of a more standardized approaches to ensure group learning are in accordance to the degrees or
levels of collaboration intensity and the teaching curriculum. In addition, the collaborative process in the
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synchronized environment requires students to be trained and practice the tool frequently before the actual use.
As for the LMS tools, it is believed that proper guide to engage students in collaborative practice is needed to
direct their interactions to solve complex problems.
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Figure 2: A taxonomy of using cloud computing tools for collaborative learning
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The major collaborative activities that students perform when using different cloud computing tools were
commenting, presenting ideas, sharing screen, chatting and sending instant messages, uploading files, drawing,
downloading, storing, and posting. This study anticipated that certain functionalities for sharing content in some
cloud computing tools makes it easier for students to review the academic materials essential for them to
construct a meaningful experience. In addition, promoting various types of sharing in the same space would
significantly increase students’ understanding of complex concepts (Erturk, 2016). Social networking tools were
found to play an important role in promoting online collaborative learning due to its role in providing students
with an additional medium for interacting with their classmates. This includes exchanging multimedia resources
and documents (like in Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter) in a controlled space (Welikala, 2012), which would
increase the idea generation process (Subramani, 2015), and encourage students to share and post their own
thoughts and materials. We also found that majority of previous studies benefited from using the Web

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functionalities to support synchronous editing and comment writing as well as save changes to the original
document in real-time. Such usage was believed to enhance students’ positive attitude to the collaboration
process (Zheng, Lawrence, Warschauer, & Lin, 2015) as it engaged students in collaborative writing and
improve interactions between group members. Students may also benefit from tracking records of changes done

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by others so that they can reflect or confirm their ideas based on the sequence of changes. Other LMS
functionalities were found to facilitate various modes of communication between students-to-instructors or
students-to-students which helped students receive information related to course materials, and allowed them to

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follow announcements about classes, courses, and assignments given by the instructor. Our review revealed that
the chat session is one of the most helpful tools for mitigating any problems students may encounter when
learning about a given topic. This is because the transcript from the chat session can be saved and placed online
for other students to view if necessary (Subramani, 2015).
The benefits of using cloud computing tools for collaborate learning in the higher education context were

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mostly towards developing students’ reflection and idea generation abilities. The timeline of utilizing cloud
computing tools for collaborative learning is presented in Figure 3. From the figure, it can be noticed that the
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movement towards using synchronized tools in higher education has increased over the last several years. There
is no doubt that the implementation of these tools has provided substantial improvements in students’
collaboration through promoting active discussion, sharing, and editing of learning resources. The mapping of
cloud computing tools in a blended learning setting will certainly help academicians, practitioners and
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researchers to understand the opportunities and challenges of these tools from a wider perspective.
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Figure 3: The development trend of cloud computing tools

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Highlights
• A scoping review on the role of cloud computing tools for collaborative learning was conducted.
• Synchronized, LMS, and social networking were the main tools used in a blended collaborative learning
environment.
• The associations between these tools and certain collaborative learning activities were mapped.
• Several opportunities and challenges related to the use of these tools for collaborative learning were identified.

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