Working collaboratively reflects a wide range of perspectives and as such, results in a more complete and comprehensive product (Suwantarathip & Wichadee, 2014). Virtual collaboration can lead to more reflections and sharing of ideas than face-to-face collaboration (Clark & Mayer, 2011). Students can also utilize the chat function to partake in discussion with group members or teachers to further enhance knowledge construction (Suwantarathip & Wichadee, 2014). Collaboration using Google Docs is not restricted to the classroom environment, providing flexibility, as students can work together at any time, anywhere, through the doc (Suwantarathip & Wichadee, 2014). Students can work on the document at the same time, building off each other’s ideas, research, brainstorming, and suggestions. As suggested by a constructivist learning approach, collaborating and conversing with others enriches student understanding (Jonassen et al., 1999). Google Docs is an interactive tool that allows users to work on a document simultaneously (Alharbi, 2009), on a one-to-one or one-to-many basis (Desjardins, 2005a). The ability for teachers to monitor their students’ progress and provide feedback on students’ work right on this innovative platform supports students’ Zone of Proximal Development as they are guided by teachers from the start of planning their work to the final stage of editing, through to feedback and drafting practices and activities (Alharbi, 2009). Google Docs is distinguished from other Web 2.0 tools by its editing feature that enables both author and reviewer to contribute to the text synchronously (simultaneous editing of writing by learners) and asynchronously (non-simultaneous editing by learners) (Alharbi, 2019). Students can create, share, and collaborate in real time. Google Docs is an interactive, web-based, word processor that allows students to produce text documents that live entirely on the cloud (Alharbi, 2019).
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