Collaborative learning technologies (tools that are used for facilitating or mediating collaborative learning) have been widely incorporated in distance education as well as broadly adopted in higher education. While a range of collaborative technologies has been incorporated, their implementation has often failed to align with well-established and empirically validated principles for the design of learning (Bernard & Rubalcava, 2000; Chang & Hannafin, 2015; So & Brush, 2008). In this article we (1) describe how collaborative learning technologies have been effectively and ineffectively incorporated in the higher education setting; (2) review and analyze critical design principles for integrating collaborative learning technologies in higher education applications of distance education (with particular focus on online learning) and, (3) explore the relationship between technological transience and the effectiveness of collaborative distance education technologies.