Communication and collaboration is considered an important aspect in any learning process. Through communication, people use higher thinking skills and improve their knowledge. When using problem based-learning and state-of-the-art technology as a learning resource (Andreasen, Nielsen, 2013) communication and networking is an opportunity for flexible and deep learning. Today’s challenges are forcing change and ask learning to be transferred to virtual spaces. Although online problem-based learning (OPBL) in virtual learning environments today may be an alternative to conventional problem-based learning, it is still unclear how to methodically apply digital technologies using the PBL model compared to the traditional PBL model (Car, Kyaw et al. 2018). Gündüz, Alemdağ et al. (2016) argues that further research is needed to design and adapt a curriculum in virtual environments.

This paper presents a theoretical literature analysis of the problem-based online learning.  The focus of literature analysis is an overview of online problem based learning research over the past decade (2010-2020). Literature search was performed using the following databases: Eric, Scopus, Mendeley, Spring, Researchgate, Google Scholar. During the  literature analysis, the researcher seeks answers to the research question: What factors related to OPBL and its organization determine the involvement of learners in collaborative activities in virtual learning environments? To answer the research question, the literature is analyzed based on the collaborative problem solving (CPS) design / construction (Griffin, Care, & McGaw, 2012). The aim here is to find out how social and cognitive skills in CPS construction relate to digital skills and how their interrelationships allow learners to be active participants, think together and perform other collaborative activities in search of alternative solutions to problems. This article also focuses on learning strategies, student empowerment, OPBL implementation methodology, application, and interrelationships. The researcher analyzes the application of CPS activities in social virtual spaces, summarizes synchronous and asynchronous collaborative learning environments and tools, social networks, their application possibilities and interrelationships.

The results of the paper analysis will help teachers to answer the following questions:

• What factors determine learners' involvement in collaborative activities in a virtual learning environment?

• What strategies, tools, and learning environments to choose for an effective online collaborative problem solving (OCPS)?

It will also help to discover new ways of organizing education in the virtual environment and to gather new ideas in creating educational content. For researchers the results may lead to  new ideas and solutions for successful distance learning in the future.

An inductive research method was chosen for the study, which resulted in the adaptation of the CPS construct (Collaborative problem solving construct (Griffin, Care, & McGaw, 2012)) in online learning. The research process involves several stages: Literature review and analysis → CPS online elements selection → Adapted CPS construct for learning online From the analysis of each article CPS and ICT elements, general conclusions are drawn, the overall picture of OCPS is given. Selection of articles for analysis. Articles for literature analysis were searched in these databases: Eric, Scopus, Mendeley, Spring, Researchgate, Google Scholar. Keywords were used in the search engine: collaboration, communication, cooperative learning, interaction, online learning, online problem based learning, computer supported learning, online collaborative problem solving, computer supported collaborative learning. In the selection process, articles were immediately filtered by year, given that e-learning has strongly evolved over the last decade. Therefore, the focus has been on articles that have been written in the last 10 years, i.e. 2010-2020. In the first stage, 104 articles that met the criteria were found. In the next step studies exploring problem solving in collaborative virtual learning environments were selected. Here, special attention was paid to cognitive, social and digital skills. Coding. For coding and analysis MAXQDA2020 software was used. Each article selected for analysis was coded according to three skill groups: cognitive skills social skills digital skills In coding, these skill groups were taken as categories and their elements as subcategories. Taking into account the research question, the researchers' attention to different elements of OCPS use in digital space was compared, the connections between CPS and ICT capabilities were sought and the basic model of using the adapted CPS construct in digital space was presented.

Summarizing the literature of the last decade on collaborative problem solving online, it can be stated that the elements of the CPS construct (Griffin, Care, & McGaw, 2012) in distance learning are applied, however relations between the social skills, cognitive skills (CPS components) and IT skills in analyzing individual studies are not very strong. In the reviewed literature, collaborative problem solving in virtual environments and required skills are analyzed more as separate categories of cognitive skills, social skills, and digital skills, but not as their relational totality or their coherence. The reviewed articles mostly focus on the hard-technological part: digital collaboration tools, social virtual learning platforms, and relatively little on the soft-methodological part: methods of IT tools application, methodologies of digital content design, strategies and purposeful organization of activities in virtual learning environments. After a detailed analysis of the articles, the CPS construct was theoretically adapted to virtual learning environments - the connections between cognitive, social and IT abilities were presented, the relations connecting these abilities were identified: activities that activate learning, learning models and learning tools. The adapted CPS model for learning online provides teachers and curriculum designers with a targeted opportunity to choose teaching models, tools, virtual environments and activities using the CPS online model, taking into account learners' abilities and interests, and for learners CPS online model empower to solve problems more collaboratively and effectively in virtual learning environments. This theoretical analysis of the literature provided an opportunity to reflect on the possibilities of implementing distance learning in practice and discover new activities and connections that promote cooperation in the education of the 21st century modern man. All this can contribute to the generation of new ideas and solutions for the successful implementation of distance learning in the future.

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