The idea of learner-centered collaborative learning in the context of this study is that learners are expected to take responsibility for their own learning: The instructor gives an orientation to the topic through theoretical face-to-face lectures. S/he also gives few pointers to selected on-line resources. The system provides tools to process information and collaborate with peer learners.

Each document has its own newsgroup that is activated when first message is written. The idea is that short conversations should take place in comment windows, but the longer ones should continue in the document specific newsgroup.

Filters enable user to restrict visibility of other user annotations. User may also create his/her own filters,

The search function of the system has three options: 1) Internal search engine, 2) Google and 3) manual navigation. The last one is useful if the user prefers to use other search engine than Google.

An example of a standard task for the students participating in a quantitative educational statistics course utilising the EDUCOSM system

Course structure