ABSTRAT Specialists in the field of education calling that student is the focus of the educational process to create self-knowledge and then to engage in an educational environment that will earn good learning achievement. Therefore, the importance of the present study is to identify the benefits of teamwork through the internet with students of higher education to search for information and construct of educational content whilst being supervised by a faculty member. The present study

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... tes the potential of applying a collaborative learning strategy over the internet among a sample of students in higher education. The sample was selected from different universities within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The researcher used and developed Gilly Salmon's five stage model of e-learning as the learning model and as a way for measuring students' activities via the internet. The sample consisted of 24 postgraduate students (10 females and 14 males in the age group of 22-26 years) from 13 Saudi universities. The data were collected during the first term of the academic year 2016-2017. In order to analyse the data, the researcher employed content analysis patterns using qualitative data analysis software, NVivo. The results showed that students participated actively with each other, particularly after the second week. The quality of student information collected varied depending on the ability of each student to use the internet. Students explained some of the obstacles that prevented them from using the internet in collaborative learning and to the importance of providing students with the internet skills when searching for information. In addition, the study suggests that 'large groups' of students using the internet should consist of a minimum number of 15 students. Finally, efforts should be made to conduct training courses in e-learning organized and managed by experts in e-learning, in order to provide students with the requisite background knowledge.