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This paper concerns the cutting edge educational approaches incorporatedinto syllabuses of the most progressive Russian higher technicalschools. The authors discuss one of the active methods in teaching foreign languages– collaborative learning implemented in e-courses. Theoretical and historicalaspects of this approach are addressed, as are its suitability for engineeringeducation and possible ways of introducing collaborative learning into ecourses.Collaborative learning technology offers wide prospects for teachers offoreign languages as it enables the use of various patterns of interaction, promotesdiscussion, opinion exchange, peer assessment and building an e-learningcommunity, fosters the development of e-culture and netiquette, and preparesfuture specialists for work in their professional sphere under the new conditionsimposed by society’s technological and cultural development. This paper describesreal pedagogical experience of teaching English to students using theplatform Moodle, focusing on the capacity of different Moodle instruments fordesigning group work tasks. Recommendations are given for their usage and theresults of implementing a collaborative learning approach into certain e-coursesoffered at Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU) are presented.