This study attempts to examine how students participate and interact in different discussion modules organized with different group size in an online environment. It adopts a case study methodology where full semester online course with two small-group and three class-wide discussion forums was examined. The researcher counted the number of…

Learning to argue is prerequisite to solving complex problems in groups, especially when they are multidisciplinary and collaborate online. Environments for Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) can be designed to facilitate argumentative knowledge construction. This study investigates how argumentative knowledge construction in…

This article presents research on students' experiences of learning through a blend of face-to-face and online discussion. The participants in our study were students enrolled in a foreign policy course at a major Australian university. Students' conceptions of learning through discussion, and their approaches to both face-to-face and online…

A forum is a valuable tool to foster reflection in an in-depth discussion; however, it forces the course mediator to continually pay close attention in order to coordinate learners' activities. Moreover, monitoring a forum is time consuming given that it is impossible to know in advance when new messages are going to be posted. Additionally, a…

In CSCL contexts ("Computer Supported Collaborative Learning") collaborative activities with different levels of structuredeness are often used to foster discussion and exchange among students and enhance collaboration. In this field the debate around whether and to what extent it is useful to structure the activities proposed to students, is…

Recent findings from research into Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) have indicated that not all learners are able to successfully learn in online collaborative settings. Given that most online settings are characterised by minimal guidance, which require learners to be more autonomous and self-directed, CSCL may provide conditions…

Previous research studies on how to promote student participation in asynchronous online discussions have largely focused on the role of the instructor or tutor as facilitators. Not many investigated student facilitation. This article reports a qualitative study examining the facilitation techniques used by student facilitators to attract their…

The focus of this article is the reliability of content analysis of students' computer conference communication. Content analysis is often used when researching the relationship between learning and the use of information and communications technology in educational settings. A number of studies where content analysis is used and classification…

This study examined the relationships among group size, participation, and learning performance factors when learning a programming language in a computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) context. An online forum was used as the CSCL environment for learning the Microsoft ASP.NET programming language. The collaborative-learning experiment…

Documenting collaborative knowledge construction is critical for research in computer-supported collaborative learning. Because this is a multifaceted phenomenon, mixed methods are necessary to construct a good understanding of collaborative interactions, otherwise there is a risk of being overly reductionistic. In this paper I use quantitative…

Online discussions have been widely utilized as an educational activity, and much research has been conducted on the process and behaviors involved in asynchronous discussions. However, research on behavioral patterns in learners' synchronous discussions, including the process of social knowledge construction and project coordination is limited.…

In this study we explored questioning behaviors among elementary students engaging in inquiry science using the "Knowledge Forum", a computer-supported collaborative learning tool. Adapting the theory of systemic functional linguistics, we developed the Ideational Function of Question (IFQ) analytical framework by means of inductive analysis of…

Participation is a complex process, engaging the whole person, implying cognitive, emotional and relational aspects. In online open and distant learning, group work is a commonly used strategy, given its collaborative nature and constructivist framework ([Bates and Poole, 2003], [Garrison and Anderson, 2003] and [Jonassen, 2005]). In this context,…

This study drew on data from two different initiatives in which groups of participants were asked to work together to build knowledge. In the first initiative school students were asked to discuss ethical issues in science, using a moderated online discussion board and in the second, researchers in the field of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL)…

Discusses the results of a study of a graduate course that was delivered to adult students at three locations by interactive video conference. The course was supplemented with the computer-mediated communication of two Internet discussion groups that provided a framework for collaborative learning in which personal experiences enriched knowledge…