ABSTRACT
We have been experimenting with Web-based electronic conferencing at the Educational Science Department of Utrecht University for a period of nearly 10 years now. Obstacles such as insufficient participation, low quality of messages, and integration of CMC into a course have been overcome and many of our students now appear actively engaged with knowledge construction activities (Veerman, 2000). Although we may have succeeded in organizing interesting computer conferences, things are missing relating to the affordances of computer conferencing for collaborative learning. It seems that at the level of individual courses we have reached limits we cannot move beyond. To understand this problem and its possible solutions, in this chapter we discuss some of our data concerning the role of computer conferencing in higher education.
