ARTICLE Digital collaborative learning in elementary and middle schools as a function of individualistic and collectivistic culture: The role of ICT coordinators' leadership experience, students' collaboration skills, and sustainability Ina Blau | Tamar Shamir-Inbal | Shlomit Hadad Department of Education and Psychology, The Open University of Israel, Ra'anana, Israel Correspondence Ina Blau, Department of Education and Psychology, The Open University of Israel, 1 University Road, P.O.B.808,Ra'anana 43107, Israel. Email:inabl@openu.ac.il Peer Review The peer review history for this article is available at https://publons.com/publon/10. 1111/jcal.12436. Abstract The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of online collaborative learn- ing experiences on students' digital collaboration skills and on the sustainability of e- collaboration in schools' culture—comparing individualistic versus collectivistic cul- tures. In addition, we explored how the leadership experience of schools' ICT coordi- nators was predicted by their sense of professionalism and cognitive, emotional and social aspects of perceived learning (PL), while leading the collaborative projects. The participants were ICT coordinators from 513 Israeli schools; 214 of whom were Hebrew-speakers, and 299 Arabic-speakers. The participants were asked to complete an online questionnaire, which included multiple-choice and open-ended questions. The results showed significant differences between a variety of the coordinator- related variables as a function of learning culture (more individualistic vs.more collec- tivistic). Coordinators' leadership experience was a powerful predictor of students' digital collaboration skills, but did not predict the sustainability of e-collaboration. Coordinators' emotional PL predicted the sustainability of collaboration in both schools with more individualistic and with more collectivistic learning cultures. The implications of the findings for educational theory and practise are discussed. KEYWORDS cognitive, emotional, and social perceived learning, ICT school coordinators, individualistic and collectivistic school culture, leadership experience, online collaborative learning, students' digital collaboration skills 1 | INTRODUCTION One of the aims of the educational system in the 21st century is to prepare students to successfully function in the knowledge society. This requires, among other things, developing the ability to interact, collaborate, and work in teams within digital environments (Dery, Sebastian, & van der Meulen, 2017). Collaborative learning involves groups of learners working together to complete a shared task or cre- ate group outcomes (Laal, Naseri, Laal, & Khattami-Kermanshahi, 2013). In this process, learners are exposed to different perspectives and take responsibility for each others' learning, which results in higher achievement and greater productivity (Johnson & Johnson, 2009; Laal & Laal, 2012). Information and communication technologies (ICT) have taken an increasingly important role in collaboration processes in educational systems (Fu & Hwang, 2018). In computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL), digital devices support mutual construction of mean- ing. Alongside the acquisition and construction of knowledge, CSCL contributes to inter-personal interactions, which are the main drivers of the collaborative learning process (Fu & Hwang, 2018; Persico, Received: 23 September 2019 Revised: 27 February 2020 Accepted: 8 March 2020 DOI: 10.1111/jcal.12436 672 © 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd J Comput Assist Learn. 2020;36:672–687. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jcal