Online Collaborative Learning Activities Research Articles

Design of Moodle-based collaborative learning activities to enhance student interactions

PurposeThis article explores the impact of systematically designed online collaborative activities in two engineering undergraduate modules and key considerations for student interaction in Moodle.Design/methodology/approachThe educational design research approach was chosen to improve educational practices through iterative needs analysis, design, development and implementation. The study followed design-based research (DBR) approach, with a mixed-method research design used to uncover the critical factors in designing, developing and implementing online collaborative learning activities for improving student interaction. Two iterative cycles of online collaborative learning activities were implemented using the Moodle learning management system for two modules of an engineering undergraduate degree programme at a state university in Sri Lanka.FindingsResults indicate that students had demonstrated increased motivation for collaborative activities, and they had not experienced any significant difficulties in accessing materials or instructions. This study emphasizes that the design of learning activities has a greater influence on determining the level of interaction between the learner interface and the learner content. Also, a higher number of interactions on the wiki page improved learner-learner interactions, likely due to clear instructions and reduced complexities compared to previous Moodle activities. Overall, appropriately designed online activities can enhance students' motivation and improve communication, collaboration, cooperation and a sense of community among peers.Research limitations/implicationsThe study's constraints included a small sample size of 93 students in two courses, which limits generalization of the results. The study's findings should be carefully considered before being applied to courses with nontechnical content. The second constraint was the number of courses on which the activities were carried out. The activities were designed specifically for two Earth Resources engineering courses, and the developed activities addressed technical course content. The effect of the activities on students' engagement and motivation in various courses with nontechnical content must be investigated, and a complete generalization of the study's results may be called into question. As a result, careful consideration must be given to generalizing the study's findings.Practical implicationsThe study found that authentic collaborative learning activities using online technologies increased student participation and helped them discover their engineering design skills. Future research can focus on developing activities for other technical courses and incorporating additional tools into the instructional process. The use of a design-based research approach was recommended for future studies to obtain more comprehensive results than traditional comparative study designs.Originality/valueThe findings of this study suggest mechanisms to improve student interaction through online collaborative activities, particularly for delivering technical content. Such an understanding of learner interactions with course content, peers, teachers and interfaces will assist in the effective transformation of traditional technical content to online delivery mode. This is a unique study of converting in-class delivered engineering module content to online delivery within an equal time frame under restricted facilities and conditions resulting from a pandemic environment.

Design and Modeling of Educational Scenarios for Collaborative Online Learning Activities

Collaborative learning has evolved from traditional classroom teaching to e-learning platforms, at this level of revolution, Educational scenarios for online collaborative learning activities must be carefully designed to make an interactive and engaging learning experience. This research aims to model collaborative educational scenarios within the framework of online learning activities to allow learners to participate in online activities. We discuss the appropriate educational scenario, which combines multimedia content, interaction between the collaborative group, and active learning elements, and then we model this scenario with the UML modeling language. As a result, we represent how the design of educational scenarios, provides a better enhancement of the collaborative learning experience through the use of new technologies so that learners are encouraged to reflect on their learning processes and their group's collaboration, thus promoting better understanding. In conclusion, designing and modeling a collaborative learning educational scenario emphasizes collaboration, interaction, and knowledge acquisition between learners within a collaborative learning activity.

Online collaborative note-taking and discussion forums in flipped learning environments

As the number of students learning in online and flipped contexts grows, an important question arises: to what extent is it necessary to have places or activities where students interact regarding course content? The present paper looked at three flipped learning environments: one with no online collaboration, one featuring an online discussion forum and one involving online collaborative note-taking. The subjects (N = 178) were all graduate students taking a flipped version of an English scientific writing class at a university in South Korea. The results show that students in the experimental conditions with online collaboration (collaborative note-taking and discussion forums) outperformed peers in the control condition (no online collaboration) on individual writing assignments. Furthermore, there was a benefit in the experimental condition with discussion forums regarding students’ group writing scores compared to the control group. These results show the value of implementing online student-to-student collaboration in flipped learning contexts and that both modes of collaboration tested herein add value to students’ learning. Implications for practice or policy: Incorporating online collaborative learning activities improves performance in flipped courses. Using collaborative forums and collaborative note-taking provide similar benefits. and their implementation will improve the online portion of a flipped class. Flipped classes generally include an online lecture component but should also feature online collaboration as well.

Collaborative Approaches in Online Nurse Education: A Systematic Literature Review

According to the socio-constructivist theories of learning, collaborative learning allows negotiation of shared meanings and co-construction of new knowledge among peers. This approach fits particularly well with healthcare professional education needs, as these professionals often face challenging issues that require the ability to fully understand the complexity of the patients’ health conditions through working with others. However, while collaborative learning approaches are widely used in face-to-face nurse education contexts, their online equivalent still seem to be understudied, in spite of their great potential for the field. This systematic literature review investigates: (1) to what extent are online collaborative learning activities being adopted and investigated in formal nurse education, (2) What kind of online collaborative learning activities/techniques are proposed and what team structures are employed, (3) what technologies are used to run these learning activities, and (4) what methods are used to evaluate the impact of these activities. Studies were included if they presented online collaborative learning activities proposed by Universities or VET (Vocational Education and Training) providers. Articles published in 2015 or later were collected in November 2022 from Scopus, Web of Science and Medline. A total of 1059 records were retrieved, selected and analysed by four coders, resulting in a final dataset of 75 papers that were coded for type of collaborative approach, study characteristics, research methodology used, strength of evidence, and relevance to the research questions. Most of them described the use of activities like Discussions, Case Studies and Peer Reviews, sometimes in association with Role Play. In terms of technologies, Learning Managements Systems, forums and social media were already common pre-pandemic, but during the lockdown synchronous communication tools – often used to support simulations – took over. Data collection was carried out quantitatively, qualitatively or using mixed methods, but in many cases data reporting is weak or absent at all. The majority of the retrieved papers illustrate activities where collaboration was not structured in any way and there was no joint assignment or common objective/artefact that learners needed to reach/produce. In case of blended interventions, often collaboration is limited to the f2f sessions, while the digital setting is used for individual work. In terms of social structure, most of the time small groups or plenaries are used. In summary, the review reveals that studies on online collaborative learning for nurses are limited, especially in Europe, and the design of online collaborative activities often clashes with the principles put forward by the Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) research community. Based on the results of the review we put forth some key recommendations, such as ensuring that online collaboration involves the creation of a shared artefact and striving to make virtual simulations actually collaborative, rather than limited to envisage student interactions in the debriefing phase. The paper also proposes a number of research areas seldom investigated and that would deserve further attention in the future.

Understanding student teachers’ reflective thinking using epistemic network analysis and fine-grained trace data

In teacher education, it is important to design activities for enabling student teachers to deal with teaching problems and cultivate their reflective thinking. Because of the dynamic, interdependent, and temporal nature of reflective thinking, uncovering the reflective thinking process comprehensively via a sophisticated learning analysis approach can help to inform the pedagogical design and learning environment design. In this study, based on the discourse trace data drawn from 40 student teachers in an eight-week course, content analysis, statistical analysis, and epistemic network analysis were adopted to explore student teachers’ reflective thinking process. The results showed that student teachers paid more attention to the content and premise aspects of reflection, but less attention to the process aspect of reflection. In terms of the stage of reflection, student teachers were in a lower stage of reflection and lack of deep reflection. Differences in reflective thinking between the high- and low-score groups were compared, and the result illustrated that in-depth understanding and analysis of learning tasks could be observed in the early stage of collaboration, reflection on the problem-solving process took place in the middle stage of collaboration. Combined with previous experience, timely self-reflection and evaluation in the late stage of collaboration were more conducive to good collaborative performance. In addition, this study revealed how group members changed their behavior to better promote self-reflection during online collaborative learning activities. Finally, the limitations, implications, and future research direction of this study are discussed.

Online Collaborative Activities during Covid-19: Students’ Perception

This study investigates the advantages and disadvantages of online collaborative learning activities as perceived by the English Department students at Hebron University, Palestine. A 34-item questionnaire was used to collect this data. The participants of the study consisted of 61 students at Hebron University. The researchers tried to illustrate the advantages and disadvantages of online collaborative activities and tried to give solutions for the challenges students may face. The results indicate that the students in general express positive attitudes towards the online collaborative activities, as they develop several areas for them. The results also show that the students face several problems in this experience, although they support and try to suggest some solutions to them.

Exploration of a group assessment model to foster student teachers’ critical thinking

Though peer assessment has been widely recognized as an effective teaching approach to develop learners’ critical thinking, pedagogical strategies and analysis of students’ peer assessment at the group level but not individual level are underexplored. Group assessment is emphasized in this study by focusing on assessing peer-group work. In the context of 40 student teachers participating in online group assessment activities, this study revealed critical thinking patterns and their correlation with group performances by content analysis and epistemic network analysis (ENA). The results showed that participants’ critical thinking in group assessment activities mainly stayed at the level of understand. The high-score groups’ critical thinking had more connections between understand and evaluate, while the low-score groups’ critical thinking had more connections between recognize and understand, and understand and analyse. In addition, the high- and low-score groups showed different characteristics of critical thinking at different stages and different tasks of group assessment activity. Diversified and developmental critical thinking patterns could be found in the high-score groups, while the low-score groups tended to maintain single and fixed critical thinking patterns. Finally, the discussion and suggestions of intervention for critical thinking development of high- and low-score groups are provided to help design and implement online collaborative learning activities and group assessment activities in the future.

Language learners’ emotion regulation and enjoyment in an online collaborative writing program

Collaborative learning in online contexts is emotionally challenging for language learners. To achieve successful learning outcomes, language learners need to regulate their emotions and sustain positive emotions during the collaborative learning process. This study investigated language learners’ emotion regulation and enjoyment, the most extensively researched positive emotion in foreign language learning, in an online collaborative English learning environment. In the study, we collected data by surveying 336 Chinese students majoring in English who collaboratively completed a series of English language writing tasks in 108 online groups facilitated by a social media app (WeChat). Principal component analysis revealed two primary types of emotion regulation: peer regulation and group regulation. The analysis also revealed one factor underpinning enjoyment: enjoyment of online collaboration. Correlation analysis showed medium and positive relationships between peer regulation, group regulation, and enjoyment of online collaboration. Structural equation modeling analysis further found that group regulation exerted a medium-sized direct effect on enjoyment of online collaboration. Peer regulation affected enjoyment of online collaboration moderately and indirectly via group regulation. The theoretical and pedagogical implications of the findings can help to optimize face-to-face and online collaborative language learning activities.

Exploring the relationship between learning sentiments and cognitive processing in online collaborative learning: A network analytic approach

Evidence suggests that learning sentiments are inextricably related to cognitive processing, and the exploration of the relationship remains to be an important research topic. This study collected discourse data from 40 college students in online collaborative learning activities. Epistemic network analysis (ENA) was employed to explore the connection between learning sentiments and cognitive processing and compare the ENA network characteristics of the higher- and lower-engagement groups. The results indicated that there was a joint connection between understand-analyze-neutral, and insightful sentiments had more association with neutral sentiments and understanding. Besides, distinctions existed between higher- and lower-engagement groups with respect to the association between learning sentiments and cognitive processing. The higher-engagement group had stronger associations around positive and confused sentiments, while the lower-engagement group had stronger associations around off-topic discussion. The findings of this research may serve as a reference for designing and implementing collaborative learning activities to increase cognitive levels.

Is there order in the mess? A single paper meta-analysis approach to identification of predictors of success in learning analytics

ABSTRACT Predictors of student academic success do not always replicate well across different learning designs, subject areas, or educational institutions. This suggests that characteristics of a particular discipline and learning design have to be carefully considered when creating predictive models in order to scale up learning analytics. This study aimed to examine if and to what extent frequently used predictors of study success are portable across a homogenous set of courses. The research was conducted in an integrated blended problem-based curriculum with trace data (n = 2,385 students) from 50 different course offerings across four academic years. We applied the statistical method of single paper meta-analysis to combine correlations of several indicators with students’ success. Total activity and the forum indicators exhibited the highest prediction intervals, where the former represented proxies of the overall engagement with online tasks, and the latter with online collaborative learning activities. Indicators of lecture reading (frequency of lecture view) showed statistically insignificant prediction intervals and, therefore, are less likely to be portable across course offerings. The findings show moderate amounts of variability both within iterations of the same course and across courses. The results suggest that the use of the meta-analytic statistical method for the examination of study success indicators across courses with similar learning design and subject area can offer valuable quantitative means for the identification of predictors that reasonably well replicate and consequently can be reliably portable in the future.

Understanding student teachers’ collaborative problem solving: Insights from an epistemic network analysis (ENA)

Collaborative problem solving, as a key competency in the 21st century, includes both social and cognitive processes with interactive, interdependent, and periodic characteristics, so it is difficult to analyze collaborative problem solving by traditional coding and counting methods. There is a need for a new analysis approach that can capture the temporal and dynamic process of collaborative problem solving in diversity online collaborative learning context to provide some insights into online collaborative learning design. During an eight-week semester, a total of 42 student teachers participated in two online collaborative learning activities. Student teachers' discourse data were collected, and the data were coded based on a collaborative problem solving assessment model. This study used Epistemic Network Analysis (ENA) to explore the collaborative problem solving processes of student teachers in different online collaborative learning tasks. The results showed that both the high and low academic performance groups worked to maintain positive communication, but the students in the high academic performance groups negotiated on ideas while the students in the low academic performance groups focused on sharing resources/ideas. Moreover, fine-grained centroid analysis on a weekly basis showed that the high academic performance groups began by maintaining positive communication, and ended by negotiating ideas, while the low academic performance groups began by sharing resources/ideas and ended by regulating problem solving activities. Finally, the implications, limitations, and future research were discussed.

Capturing regulatory patterns in online collaborative learning: A network analytic approach

Interest in understanding regulation in the context of collaborative learning has increased in the past decade. Existing studies have investigated how regulated learning evolves in collaborative learning by focusing on external behaviors, and how different types and strategies of regulation are effective in promoting collaborative learning. Due to the cyclical and dynamic characteristics of regulation, there is a need for new methods that can trace the dynamic emergence of regulatory processes in diver collaborative learning contexts, so as to provide some insight into effective learning design. In the context of 45 student teachers participating in multi-layered online collaborative activities, this study investigated their regulatory patterns during various stages of online collaborative learning activities over an eight-week semester via content analysis and epistemic network analysis (ENA). Quantitative analyses indicated that student teachers demonstrated active social aspects of regulation and had many regulatory behaviors in content monitoring in the designed online collaborative learning activities. Through identifying and comparing the regulatory patterns of the high-performing group and the low-performing group across the stages of learning activities, the results showed that the group demonstrating ample regulatory patterns in “content monitoring”, “evaluating”, and “social emotional regulatory behavior” performed better on the collective score of group product. Furthermore, the analysis elucidated how groups regulated their collaboration variously in different stages of online learning activities. Suggestions about regulated learning at both cognitive and social emotional aspects are provided to teachers and learning designers for designing and implementing online collaborative learning activities.

STUDENTS’ EXPERIENCES AND PERCEPTIONS OF ONLINE COLLABORATIVE LEARNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION OF KOREA AND THE UAE

The purpose of this study was to compare the experiences and perceptions of UAE and Korean students in campus-based universities of online collaborative learning (OCL). 262 college students participated in online surveys. Their experiences in terms of frequency, assessment, barriers, support, and attitude for OCL in each country were examined. With Importance-Performance Analysis, the perceived importance of OCL activities was compared with actual frequency. Both countries’ students experienced group projects and group presentations the most frequently, while online collaborative writing and online group exams were rarely used. As barriers to OCL, UAE students pointed out language, gender, and privacy as the major barriers while Korean students mentioned students’ attitude and language. UAE students had more frequent experiences of and more positive attitudes toward OCL than did Korean students, although the two countries have similar cultural propensities.

A multimethod approach for supporting reflection and creativity in online collaborative courses

Cultivating the capacity to create and reflect has been a prominent feature of professional training in numerous disciplines. Through teaching strategies, creativity and reflection abilities can be enhanced. In this article, we report the findings of a new multimethod approach (including narrative essay writing, high-level prompts, and online collaborative learning strategies) that provides a learning environment to influence students’ creativity and reflection. Graduate students in an online course of a national university in southern Taiwan served as participants. Through the multimethod approach, we analyzed and discussed students’ reflection, creativity, and academic emotions after learning. The results revealed that students’ reflective and creative abilities were enhanced, and the students held positive emotions toward the multimethod approach. This approach may aid teachers in the design of learning activities and guide online collaborative learning activities.

Does collaborative learning design align with enactment? An innovative method of evaluating the alignment in the CSCL context

This study reports on a novel design methodology, namely, design-centered research (DCR), developed to analyze and evaluate the alignment between an online collaborative learning design and its enactment. The approach is illustrated in a study involving 40 groups in total. Twenty different online collaborative learning activities were designed and enacted by 20 groups of three students in each of two iterations. The collaborative learning design plans from the first round were adjusted after reflecting on misalignments observed through the method during the enactment, and then enacted and tested again by another 20 groups in the second round. The proposed method involves an interaction path graph as well as three proposed indicators of group functioning. These three indicators include: (a) the range of activated knowledge, (b) the degree of knowledge building, and (c) an interactivity of the approach. This approach to quantification of alignment between a collaborative learning design and its enactment was successful in revealing areas for improvement of the design. The results of the two round study indicate that the alignment significantly improved after the optimization of the collaborative learning design based on the analysis of the first round. The findings also suggest that optimizing a collaborative learning design using this method is associated with improvements in group performance. Building on these findings, the collaborative learning design framework is discussed in detail in this article, and resulting implications for practitioners are discussed in depth.

A systematic review of cloud computing tools for collaborative learning: Opportunities and challenges to the blended-learning environment

The use of online collaborative learning activities has been notably supported by cloud computing. Although specific reference has been made to a certain online application or service, there has been no clear understanding of how different cloud computing tools have shaped the concept of collaborative learning, and the extent to which these resources are accessible to today's students. Thus, a review of the literature was conducted to identify studies on cloud computing tools for collaborative learning in a blended classroom. The review of the literature led to the inclusion of 29 relevant studies categorized as synchronized tools, Learning Management System (LMS) tools, and social networking tools. The review results revealed a set of evidences supporting the use of certain cloud computing tools for certain collaborative learning activities categorized under sharing, editing, communication and discussion. The key opportunities and challenges associated with the use of these tools in a blended learning context were also identified and discussed. Findings from this study will certainly help academicians, practitioners and researchers to understand the potential of using cloud computing environments from a wider perspective.

Online collaborative learning activities: The perspectives of minority graduate students

This exploratory study examined the perspectives of minority graduate students toward online collaborative learning activities. The participants were twenty graduate minority students (15 African Americans, five Hispanics, and five international students from Africa) in online graduate programs in instructional technology education in in the Northeastern United States. A qualitative study was conducted semi-structured interviews, focus group interviews along with observations, Data revealed that the perspectives of minority graduate students toward online collaborative learning activities could be categorized into six themes, including “(a) facilitates knowledge building and construction, (b) preference to work in small-group over whole-group activities, (c) opportunities to share and lead discussion in cross-cultural online environment (d) collaborative activities meets learning and communication styles, and (e) challenges of dealing with cultural differences, (f) lack of multicultural inclusion in the curriculum/course content. The study documents factors that facilitate cross-cultural collaborative learning activities that helped minority students to succeed in online environment.

A Survey of Technology Enabled Active Learning in Teaching and Learning Practices to Enhance the Quality of Engineering Students

In this study, a survey was carried out on the use of Technology Enabled Active Learning (TEAL) in teaching and learning practices to enhance the quality of engineering students. TEAL is one of the new learning formats that involve the use of simulations, hands-on experiments and lectures in the curriculum or learning process; a variety of technologies are applied to achieve learning goals. The application of TEAL encompasses five elements, namely: online learning, hands-on experiment, blended learning, collaborative learning and lab activities. This study implemented TEAL in practicing teaching and learning technology, pedagogy and content (TPACK) to enhance the quality and employability of engineering students through the improved curriculum of education. With the help of technologies in the learning process, students are poised to meet the need of the industry as professionals and excellent workers upon their graduation. For this purpose, final year students in the course of Bachelor of Engineering at Technical University Network (MTUN), a leading technical university network specialising in technological skills, were involved in this study. In this survey of TEAL, quantitative research methods were used to collect the relevant data.

Interactive networks and social knowledge construction behavioral patterns in primary school teachers' online collaborative learning activities

A four-stage online collaborative learning approach to supporting teachers' professional development was proposed and described in this paper. This study investigated primary school teachers' interactive networks and social knowledge construction behavioral patterns in online collaborative learning activities. The subject of this study was 83 primary school Chinese teachers who were participating in a structured online professional development program that was 6 months in duration. By combining social network analysis, content analysis and lag sequential analysis, results showed that interactive networks generated in two rounds of online collaborative learning activities were low reciprocal, and loosely connected with a low cohesiveness. There was no significant difference of behavior distributions between core and peripheral members. Moreover, teachers' social knowledge construction behavioral patterns presented different characteristics in different rounds of activities. In addition, this study identified certain problems in teachers' online learning. Finally, some implications for the design of teacher education programs, limitations and further research plans are proposed.

African American female students in online collaborative learning activities: The role of identity, emotion, and peer support

The aim of the present study was to explore how African American female students perceived their experience of online collaborative learning. A qualitative study was conducted in a university in Southeastern United States. We conducted semi-structured interviews with nine African American female students in an online multimedia instructional design course. Data triangulation was achieved by including the analysis of the students’ emails, their posts on online chat room and bulletin boards. Results revealed that the perspectives of African American women towards online collaborative learning could be categorized into three themes: (a) peer support perceived as a give-and-take process with a sense of fairness, (b) group member role as a formation of identity, and c) “frustration” as a common response to differing levels of peer participation and interaction. These emerging factors reflected African American women’s perceptions towards online collaborative learning and provided profound implications for future research and practice.