Investigating factors that influence students’ management of study environment in online collaborative groupwork

Abstract

The present study examines empirical models of students’ management of the learning environment in the context of online collaborative groupwork. Such environment management is an important component of students’ overall self-regulated learning strategy for effective learning. Student- and group-level predictors for study environment management in online groupwork were analysed based on the data from 298 graduate students in 86 online groups in a university in the Southeast, USA. The main findings of the study include, (a) most of the variance in environment management occurred at the student level; (b) peer-oriented reasons was the only significant predictor at the group level; (c) at the student level, environment management was positively related to feedback, help seeking and peer-oriented reasons; and (d) older students and those students who previously took more online courses were more likely to take initiative in arranging the study environment. The findings of the study were interpreted in relation to the relevant literature, and the implications and future research directions were also discussed.