Interpersonal online interactions are key to digital learning pedagogies and student experiences. Researchers use learner log and text data collected by technologies that mediate learner interactions online to provide indicators about interpersonal interactions. However, analytical approaches used to derive these indicators face conceptual,…

Over the past two decades, there has been an explosion of innovation in software tools that encapsulate and expand the capabilities of the widely used student peer assessment. While the affordances and pedagogical impacts of traditional in-person, "paper-and-pencil" peer assessment have been studied extensively and are relatively well…

Collaboration scripts are widely employed in online collaborative learning to enhance student engagement and facilitate collaboration. However, the optimal level of scripting remains a subject of debate. This study aims to address this issue by designing and developing different types of collaborative scripts implemented through conversational…

The advent of new technology is breaking the boundaries of traditional teaching and learning patterns with virtual worlds (VW) creating new frontiers in education. Previous research has explored the use of VW within educational settings. However, limited studies have investigated the transition processes that educators experience by adopting VW…

How to improve students' problem-solving skills and creativity and adapt them to the new situation of the twenty-first century is a rather important educational objective at present, and is expected to be for a long time to come. Project-based learning (PBL) is considered to be an approach that can develop students' higher-order thinking skills,…

Despite the continued use of social media in educational contexts, there remains skepticism about whether platforms like Twitter can actually contribute to learning. In this paper, we argue that such skepticism is based on an overly narrow conception of learning that focuses on academic performance and disregards other manifestations. To advance…

In formal educational settings, such as online university lectures, instructional videos often consist of PowerPoint slides accompanied by a video or audio explanation from the instructor. It has been assumed that the social cues provided by the instructor's video may facilitate affective processes and affect learning outcomes. Research on…

The purpose of this study is to develop a standardized measurement tool that can be used to determine the participation styles of individuals participating in online instructional discussions. The scale consists of two dimensions called 'Why' and 'How.' The Why dimension comprises the main motivators of the participants' participation in online…

Using Luhmann's communication theory and affordance theories, we develop a framework to examine how kindergarten-grade 2 students interact with tablet computers. We assessed whether cognitive ability and device configuration influence how successfully children use tablet computers. We found that children's limited ability to direct their cognitive…

Case studies hold great potential for engaging students in disciplinary content. However, little is known about the extent to which students actually cover the problem space afforded by a particular case study. In this research, we compared the problem space afforded by an instructional design case study with the actual content covered by 16…

The study was an investigation of online adult learners' perceptions of interaction, satisfaction, and performance within an online course using the Blackboard platform. Interaction included learners' interaction with the instructor, content, and the classmates. The effect of student background variables and course-related variables on interaction…

Collaborative problem-solving in science instruction allows learners to build their knowledge and understanding through interaction, using the language of science. Computer-mediated communication (CMC) tools facilitate collaboration and may provide the opportunity for interaction when using the language of science in learning. There seems to be…

This study used a sequential set-up to investigate the consecutive effects of timing of supportive information presentation (information before vs. information during the learning task clusters) in interactive digital learning materials (IDLMs) and type of collaboration (personal discussion vs. online discussion) in computer-supported…

This study examined some of the methodological approaches used by students to construct causal maps in order to determine which approaches help students understand the underlying causes and causal mechanisms in a complex system. This study tested the relationship between causal understanding (ratio of root causes correctly/incorrectly identified,…

In this paper we report the results of a study which investigated the affordances of multi-user virtual environments (MUVEs) for collaborative learning from a design perspective. Utilizing a mixed methods approach, we conducted a comparative study of the effect of varying representational and interactional design features on a collaborative design…