קהילת כתיבה מקוונת בין-לאומית

The article presents a study focusing on a writing community in higher education, in order to examine its characteristics and its contribution to the creation of a book on the topic of online collaborative learning. The community was established in a teacher education college, and over time became an international community. The planning and writing of the book were carried out collaboratively, using online systems as a means of communication and as a database. The article describes the community's predominantly online work methods. It also describes the joint community encounters, use of the community website, and the members' feedback on their colleagues' writing. It also discusses the contribution of the community to the writers, and the challenges involved in the operation of an international online writing community. The study adopted a qualitative approach based on interviews, an open-ended questionnaire, and the community website database. Content analysis elicited the following categories: expectations, and characteristics of the community encounters, the community website, and of the feedback. This study suggests the emergence of a new kind of community that differs from those previously defined in the professional literature: an online community of writing. The study reveals that this community has its own unique characteristics. The article presents the different aspects of building and managing an online community of writing, and methodologies for designing its digital environment.