CLOUD-BASED COLLABORATIVE LEARNING SYSTEMS: TRANSFORMING STUDENT INTERACTION AND KNOWLEDGE SHARING IN ONLINE EDUCATION

Abstract

Cloud-supported online collaboration is expanding in education, yet access to shared digital spaces alone does not ensure meaningful collaborative learning. Prior work often treats cloud access as sufficient to produce
interaction, which leaves important gaps in accounting for uneven participation, shallow exchange, fragile knowledge sharing, and related breakdowns in collaborative processes. This paper presents a conceptual
framework that links cloud-enabled affordances, collaborative task structure, facilitation, and group regulation to interaction quality and knowledge sharing, while differentiating knowledge sharing from deeper
knowledge construction. Developed through literature synthesis and structured explanation, the framework is then applied to representative collaborative patterns to clarify how design and facilitation choices
shape collaboration quality across settings, including where collaboration fails to develop as intended. The contribution is a disciplined model and vocabulary that supports careful use of transformation language and avoids tool-centred interpretation. The framework is intended for online learning researchers, digital learning designers, and higher-education practitioners planning collaborative online courses.