Finding the Individual in Collaborative Online Learning Environments

Collaborative learning is well suited to online learning environments built around threaded discussion. Research frameworks have developed around these practices providing methodological guidance for examining learning as a collective endeavor within the boundaries of a course. These frameworks may not adequately represent the individual as an active agent within these socially-constructed environments. The aim of this paper is to explore how narrative analysis provides a method for examining expressions of individual identity construction within an online environment. Analysis of a personal story written by a student in her weblog within an online graduate course suggests that individual identity is expressed as the integration of course concepts within practice settings and that the personal discursive space afforded by the weblog supports this integration.