Social component. An indicator of online collaborative learning

This paper presents the findings of a research study which aims to establish whether social component - called, social dimension. in the study - is useful so as to determine whether interaction within an online training course may be identified as the first step towards collaborative learning. This research study was carried out concerning an online training course for English teachers who are instructors in a distance English course. In the training course taken as reference, collaborative learning would aim at knowledge building in the online course through participation in the discussion forums enabled. Even though the small number of responses to the postings might lead to think that it does not take place, their detailed analysis proves this conclusion wrong. On the contrary, many descriptors of the category, social dimension. which are used for this analysis reveal that collaborative learning may actually be perceived and that it is also highly valued by the participants in the course.