This is a timely book. Drawing from a large number of examples, the authors discuss the role of asynchronous collaboration in various functions of higher education institutes, including teaching, research, learning, and technical support and administration. The sweep of the text is broad, covering the principles, methods, tools, and overall benefits of asynchronous collaboration, including references to recent research and development projects. The reader can see how asynchronous collaboration is used for different purposes within a university, as well as why such methods should be used for the benefit of higher education.

Ron Dearing’s report, which concerned “recommendations on how the purposes, shape, structure, and funding of higher education should develop to meet the needs of the United Kingdom over the next 20 years” (chapter 1, p. 1) seems to be the trigger for the joint creation of this book. The editors, Hazemi and Hailes, begin the volume by explaining the importance of asynchronous collaboration as one of the communication and information technology methods that increases the efficiency of higher education.

The book reflects the diverse backgrounds of the authors. The 16 chapters provide views of both the theoretical and the practical aspects of the management of distance learning, and of the application of asynchronous collaboration for intra- and inter-university purposes. Apart from chapter 2, which presents an overview of the potential of asynchronous learning for the benefit of universities, making references to the report by Dearing, the rest of the chapters correlate theoretical topics to practical examples. Such topics include models for collaborative interactions in networked learning environments (chapter 4); new forms of educational management (chapter 5); electronic classrooms (chapter 6); asynchronous learning within multi-user domain (MUDs) and multi-user object oriented systems (MOOs) environments (chapter 7); support of asynchronous teams (chapter 8); development of material and activities for asynchronous learning (chapters 9 to 13); and learning resources and metadata description schemata (chapters 14 and 15). The book concludes with a chapter on ideas and visions for the creation and collaborative management of collaborative and digital universities (chapter 16).

Very much the product of the combined interests, professional activities, and backgrounds of the authors, the richness of the presentation reflects the richness of their combined experience. The strength of the book, however, is also its weakness. It has enormous breadth, tries to relate to a wide audience (both academic and educational managers), and contains useful examples. What is missing is a coherent framework that could have acted as an umbrella for presenting the viewpoints of the various authors. The chapters are loosely coupled, and therefore can be read or used in almost any order, depending on the goals and interests of the reader. The writing and presentation style of each chapter varies. For examp le, chapter 13, “Design for Motivation,” (one of the finest chapters, to which instructional designers should pay close attention), presents key points for “stimulating and keeping” the student’s motivation in asynchronous collaborative learning activities in the form of sections, presented as checklist items.

The editors claim that there is a problem of limited exploitation of asynchronous collaboration (chapter 1, p. 3), which is debatable. Moreover, while the editors try to present a book that is “forward looking,” they do not fully succeed. There are plenty of good insights, and plenty of important questions to ponder. But when it comes to presenting specific solutions that have been tried out in practice, and that raise important questions for the future, these are discussed without reference to similar attempts made by other colleagues worldwide. This is most evident in chapter 4, “Collaborative Interactions in Support of Learning: Models, Metaphors and Management,” and chapter 10, “Support for Authoring and Managing Web-based Coursework: The TACO Project,” as well as in chapters 14, “Educational Metadata: Friendly Fire,” and 15, “Learning Activities in a Virtual Campus.” There have been many similar attempts (both successes and failures) that would have been worth presenting.

In the last chapter, the authors come closest to identifying what they mean by “collaborative university” and “digital university” when they suggest the features and characteristics of these universities. Such definitions are valuable, and should have been presented in the first introductory chapter, particularly since they were discussed by Ben Shneiderman in the prologue of the book.

This book shows what asynchronous collaboration can be in its full and rich application in higher education. It points toward directions that can be followed; the text is packed with good ideas and useful concepts and examples. Although the book is not complete in itself, it will no doubt help readers to develop a more complete concept of the potential of asynchronous collaboration, as well as of the efforts and initiatives that will be required by funding bodies, government, educational managers, academics, and teaching and administrative members in higher education to exploit asynchronous collaboration’s potential.