Grounded on constructivism, mining a complex mix of social and cognitive interrelations is key to understanding collaborative discussion in online learning. A single examination of one of these factors tends to overlook the impact of the other factor on learning. In this paper, we innovatively constructed a socialcognitive engagement setting to…

Understanding the relationship between social and cognitive engagement has critical implications for collaborative learning theory, pedagogy and analytics. This study proposed a three-layered social-cognitive network analysis framework for examining the relationship between students' social and cognitive engagement from summative, epistemic and…

There has been much interest in how to develop a sense of belonging to an academic institution over the last twenty years, given the evidence that this improves student retention, satisfaction and attainment. Fostering a sense of belonging involves both psychological and sociological aspects; students need to feel like they belong and are valued…

Non-participation and poor quality participation in online environments is often discussed in the literature. Interaction and engagement in online discussions are critical for understanding and constructing new knowledge. In this case study, we examined messages posted by graduate students in four online debates for quantity and quality. The…

Today's youth thrive in informal participatory communities where they not only consume but also act as contributors or producers. Through active participation they develop new media skills encompassing cultural competencies and social skills. In a participatory culture of learning, students' active contributions to their learning are stressed and…

This study examined the overarching issue of how temporal transitions, specifically duration of message flow, affects momentum or wellness of discussion in an asynchronous forum. Quantitative data representing time indicators in discussion activity included posting patterns related to duration (density, intensity, latency, and response count),…

This study examined students- views of collaboration and learning, and investigated how these predict students- online participation in a computer-supported learning environment. The participants were 521 secondary school students in Hong Kong, who took part in online collaborative inquiry conducted using Knowledge Forum[TM]. We developed a…

A case study was used to analyse the relationships between participation in an online discussion forum and the cognitive quality of the contributions made. Participation was calculated using two dimensions: presence (who accesses the environment, how often and for how long) and connectivity (who interacts with whom and the degree of intensity of…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of voluntary discussion forums in a higher education setting. Specifically, we examined intrinsic forum participation and investigated its relation to course performance across two experiments. In Experiment 1 (N = 1284) an online discussion forum was implemented at the beginning of an…

The increasingly prevalent use of Internet in schools and homes has resulted in asynchronous online discussion becoming an increasingly common means to facilitate dialogue between instructors and students, as well as students and students beyond the boundaries of their physical classrooms. This article is organized into two main sections. In the…

Scholars praise social networking tools for their ability to engage and motivate iGeneration students in meaningful communicative practice, content exchange, and collaboration (Greenhow, Robelia, & Hughes, 2009; Ziegler, 2007). To gain further insight about the nature of student participation, knowledge acquisition, and relationship development…

The effectiveness of computer-based learning environments depends on learners' deployment of metacognitive and self-regulatory processes. Analysis of transmitted messages in a context of Computer Mediated Communication can provide a source of information on metacognitive activity. However, existing models or frameworks (e.g., Henri, 1992) that…

An online group work project for off campus students, using wikis as the collaboration platform, has been conducted successfully for several years. Students were given the opportunity and technical means to collaborate, and staff could assess individual students' participation. However, the actual level of collaboration was less than hoped for,…

It is commonly argued that a key challenge for e-learning is to encourage learner participation. Even though this challenge has received increased attention by researchers, little effort has been put into developing a sound theoretical understanding of what online participation actually is and how it may be studied empirically. This paper examines…

Research has established that individual student interest has a positive effect on learning and academic achievement. However, little is known about the impact of a blended learning approach on individual student interest and whether combinations of online and face-to-face learning activities significantly enhance student interest. This paper…