Online collaborative learning: does it improve college students’ critical reading skills?

Abstract

ABSTRACT The improvement in critical reading skills (CRSs) plays a central part in college students’ academic achievement, in the realization of which online collaborative learning (OCL) could perform a prominent role. This mixed-methods case study sets out to examine the influence of OCL on college students’ CRSs due to the lack of research into it in the literature. To explore the impact of OCL on college students’ CRSs, sophomore pre-service English teachers’ (N = 42) CRSs were tested in the pre-treatment test before the start of an eight-week treatment, during which the participants critically evaluated the arguments in the pre-selected papers in groups of four, and in the post-treatment test subsequent to the intervention, constituting the quantitative data of the study. The qualitative data was collected from two qualitative surveys and a semi-structured interview. The findings obtained from the analysis of the quantitative data revealed that a statistically significant difference existed between the pre- and post-treatment test results, originating from the higher scores the participants got on the post-treatment test. The findings on the qualitative data demonstrated that the participants held positive views about the treatment and believed their CRSs developed considerably by virtue of immersing in OCL.