The ability to work collaboratively with others is a key competence one needs today in working life (Decuyper, Dochy, & Van den Bosshe, 2010; Henttonen, Janhonen, & Johanson, 2013). However, teaching has traditionally been a very individual endeavor (Hargreaves, 2000; Hökkä, 2012). In other words, teachers have typically acted alone both in the planning and implementation of their teaching (Hargreaves, 1994). Recent studies have shown that teacher collaboration (i.e., collaboration between teachers) promotes, for example, student learning and efficiency in teaching (e.g., Vangrieken, Dochy, Raes, & Kyndt, 2015). Therefore, instead of the culture of teaching alone, more collaborative and sharing practices have been pursued (e.g., Hargreaves & Fullan, 2012; Sahlberg, 2015).

It is well known that changing a teaching culture is a very slow process (e.g., Hargreaves, 1994). In particular, the development of university teaching is very challenging because in the academic culture, research qualifications are more distinguished than teaching qualifications (Kreber, 2010). Therefore, it is very understandable that many university teachers spend more time promoting their research than developing their teaching. Teaching and the teaching culture meet also other typical and crucial changes, such as increased use of information and communications technology (ICT) at the university and other levels of education. To further advance the current teaching cultures in universities, new knowledge will be needed.

The aim of this study is to examine new features, namely collaboration between teachers and efforts outside of their classrooms that facilitate collaboration (Hargreaves, 2000; Vangrieken et al., 2015), in university teaching. The context of this study will be teaching development projects in which university teachers enhanced their teaching using ICT over a span of one year. More specifically, the research question is: What kinds of collaboration arise when university teachers enhance their teaching environments and practices with ICT? Based on the research literature (Gordon et al., 2009, Hämäläinen & Cattaneo, 2015; Hämäläinen & De Wever, 2013; Vagrieken et al., 2015), teacher collaboration will be examined at three different levels: 1) collaboration between teachers in each development project, 2) collaboration between teachers in their own units/departments (concerning these development projects), and 3) collaboration of examined teachers outside their units within or outside the university. The collaboration between teachers and students will not be examined in this study.

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