Exploring factors for collaborative group investigation

Collaborative information seeking (CIS) turns out to be a focus of research in the Internet environment. How collaborative information seeking can be successfully performed in a Research Methods class is a concern of this study. A successful CIS means the team members reach the mutual goal and accomplish the class project. This paper attempts to identify the elements for successful CIS as well as the obstacles. An action research in a class setting was designed and data for teachers' observation as well as students' journals for the collaborative processes were collected. Students' team projects were analyzed. Barriers as well as key elements for successful CIS were identified and discussed. New model for CIS instruction was proposed and recommended for future implementation.