Abstract
This study presents the procedures and results of online cooperative learning activities carried out by the students in the a.y. 2013/14 in two academic courses at the Department of Education at Roma Tre University (Italy): “General Didactic” (GD), First-level Degree in Education Sciences and “Educational Strategies and New Communication Processes” (ES), Second-level Degree in Professional Community Educator. It constitutes the continuation of the first pilot study, carried out only in the teaching of GD in the academic year 2012/13 which has already been reported in a previous publication [1]; this second experience is built in a perspective of continuity and difference from the first one. This study is divided into two interventions: a) description and analysis of the data collected following the administration of a questionnaire, said barometer, developed to detect the climate experienced by the students involved in the online working groups; b) investigation of the relapse that collaborative activities produced on the performance. In particular, we observe that the average mark obtained in the exam of “General Didactics” by the students in cooperative is on average higher than others, and that in the first group there is less “sigma” compared to the second group.
Highlights
IntroductionIn a recent article of 2014, Johnson, Johnson, & Smith [2] propose a meta-analysis of some studies on cooperative learning conducted from the sixties of the twentieth century to the first decade of the twenty-first century in
In a recent article of 2014, Johnson, Johnson, & Smith [2] propose a meta-analysis of some studies on cooperative learning conducted from the sixties of the twentieth century to the first decade of the twenty-first century inHow to cite this paper: La Rocca, C. (2015) Cooperative Learning Online in Higher Education
The authors underlined that these results are confirmed in a meta-analysis carried out on studies focused on the analysis of the application of cooperative learning in academic courses of science, mathematics, engineering, and technology [4]
Summary
In a recent article of 2014, Johnson, Johnson, & Smith [2] propose a meta-analysis of some studies on cooperative learning conducted from the sixties of the twentieth century to the first decade of the twenty-first century in. The authors point out that these increases are significant and substantial; they identify the elements of individual achievement according to the following descriptors: acquisition and preservation of knowledge; precision and creativity in problem solving, achieving a higher level of reasoning These results were achieved by students in performing verbal tasks (such as reading, writing, and oral presentation), mathematical operations and physical activities (such as swimming, golf and tennis). Within the design of cooperative learning, Smith & Coenders [15] consider necessary to envisage the construction of an instrument to collect data on the activities of group work online They detect in the so-called community barometer, a questionnaire to be administered to participants, the tool to get a feedback on their experience [16]. The barometer used in this experience has been built by the author of this work and its standardization is expected in a future study
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