Group Online Engagement: An Analysis From Tuckman Model

Abstract

The use of group work strategy or collaborative learning can enlighten and benefit students in studying and completing tasks assigned to them. In view of this, online group work has been incorporated into online learning to promote student engagement in their learning process. However, there are also challenges related to this approach as the students would have to manage their collaborative work with other group members virtually. This study investigated the feasibility of conducting online group work by examining the students’ engagement through four group developmental stages, namely forming, storming, norming and performing. This quantitative research involved 141 undergraduates in several public higher learning institutions in Malaysia. A survey instrument was used to collect data related to forming, storming, norming and performing in an online group work where the items were divided into four sections namely demographic profile, learner-to-learner engagement, learner-to-instructor engagement, and learner-to-content engagement. The descriptive analysis of the quantitative data revealed a significant finding to prove that learners have high engagement in online learning when doing group activities or tasks. The result from this research would be useful for educators to be more aware of the effective strategies to enhance students’ understanding and improve online engagement. Future research could also be carried out to investigate the efficacy of online group in a larger scale from various fields to further strengthen the findings from this research.