Social processes play an important role in e-education. The knowledge will be acquired more completely and with greater participant satisfaction, if there was mutual support, help, encouragement, opinion exchange, discussions, cooperation and group work between the participants of online education.
Group approach to e-education supports the already mentioned activities of the participants, and is related to the application of the following pedagogical methods :
- team tasks and group problem solving;
- creative group activities (e.g. brainstorming);
- group case studies;
- group critical analyses;
- group role play;
- collective games;
- dialogues and debates;
- forum discussions and chat;
- joint projects and research;
- multipoint videoconferences.

Successful application of group methods in e-education requires appropriate technology (communication tools), as well as a moderator with appropriate skills and knowledge and with enough time to monitor and participate in group activities of the participants.

Tips & tricks: Group processes fulfil the participants’ needs for socialization and create an impression of social surrounding which motivates them to work even harder. Many types of group work do not require particularly expensive technologies (mailing lists, newsgroups, instant messaging, web forums, chat rooms and similar technologies can be acquired at a low price or even free of charge). However, group approach typically requires trained and experienced moderators, as well as a lot of their personal time and engagement.