Shared docs and students

In some ways, shared documents such as Google Docs can be a boon to students, whether online or offline. Although students who don't meet face to face in the classroom at all need to rely on such collaborative services, students who need to work on projects in an on-campus class can also find these services useful. Just because on-campus students attend class in a physical classroom doesn't mean that they are in class all the time! There's also likely to be a mix of students who live on campus and students who commute (and therefore spend much less time on campus).

However, everybody has certain preferences for communications media and working with others. Collaboration via shared docs may be easy or second nature to some, while others will have a hard time getting used to it. Working asynchronously on a document after a clear workflow is agreed upon may favor those who like to work independently. Working on a document all at once may favor those who prefer conversation and hashing things out together (and its online version, IM).

In sum, I think that whether a collaborative document is an asset to a group of students (whether online or on-campus) depends as much on the individual personalities and working styles as anything else.