Exchange email addresses and other online contact information, such as social networking profiles, instant messaging screen names or personal web pages and blog addresses. This way you will be able to contact all of the members of your team quickly and easily.
Make use of these contacts often; ask members to check in with weekly email progress reports, or use an instant message chat service to update one another on your progress.
Use online discussion boards, if available. You can use the discussion board that comes with your class if you are enrolled in an online course together. If you don't have access to this type of technology, create your own group page using Ning.com's free services.
Upload documents online. Ning.com offers document uploading options with its social networking creation technology. You could also use your class's online forums to upload documents and share files, or use Google docs to share and update files together.
If you are working on a project in which you will have to hand in a document or presentation at the completion of the collaboration, then you need a forum to share that document as you create it. Uploading the document online will allow all of the members of your group to read and modify the document.
Use live chats. Chat via Facebook or a site like Chatzy.com, which allows you to create your own private online chat forum. Schedule the chat sessions in advance, and make every group member responsible for attending. During the chat sessions, ask members to give updates to the rest of the group about how far they have gotten on their parts of the project.
If you want to bring added interest into your chats, turn them into video calls. Download Skype's free software and use a webcam to chat live via video technology.