This study is based on the hypothesis that group cohesion and efficacy have significant effects on the academic performance of individuals in online (virtual) education environments no less than in-person education environments. To that end, this study explores the effectiveness of group activities in a virtual classroom environment using VC…

Online collaborative learning has been widely used in the field of education. However, unrelated or off-topic information is often included in online collaborative learning. Furthermore, the content of online discussion is often too shallow or narrow. To achieve productive collaborative learning, this study proposed and validated an automated…

Although the potential of group awareness (GA) tools on triggering student engagement has been recognized in literature, little is known about the effects of GA tools on student engagement with peer feedback in the context of online collaborative language learning. This quasi-experimental study with 86 college students explored how GA tools…

Cyberspace has become a fixture of contemporary higher education institutions. When facing challenges seeking admission to a foreign university, international students often resort to online resources for guidance. By engaging in these online activities, international students develop a sense of community and identity. Despite recent advancement,…

Group supervision, a common method in graduate psychology training, shifted abruptly to online learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to increase understanding of psychology graduate students' perception of online group supervision during COVID-19 by focusing on the group process and the students' professional identity formation.…

Collaborative learning, social interdependence and computer mediated communication (CMC) have been broadly studied in higher education research. Collaborative learning has often been associated with a social interdependence understanding. However, this study explores the relationship from an exclusively student motivation perspective in order to…

Group work (GW) in undergraduate education facilitates the development of communication and collaborative skills. However, dysfunctional and inequitable group dynamics can have adverse effects, leading to increased anxiety. This research sought to determine the effectiveness of a Group Work Contract to facilitate the GW process in the face-to-face…

Background: A lack of student 'buy-in' and engagement are often major obstacles in academic literacy courses. To create a dialogic learning environment which encourages student investment and challenges traditional student-lecturer hierarchies of power, the curriculum of a first-year academic literacy course at a South African university was…

Purpose: Drawing on the concept of community of practice, the purpose of this study was to explore Brazilian physical education teachers' experiences of nurturing a community of practice online during the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: This was an action research project, and the participants were 13 high school physical education teachers (one of…

This quantitative study takes an ecological perspective by examining classroom environmental variables, student motivational factors, and their relationship with form-focused and meaning-focused in-class willingness to communicate (WtC) during a fully online English as a Foreign Language Programme at a Macau University. Statistically significant…

The article introduces a systematic comparison of video-based dyadic interviews and focus groups using newly developed tools for evaluating the success of one way of doing focus groups over another. We conducted a series of online discussions using a video conferencing tool, half of which consisted of four-person focus groups and the other half…

Previous studies on web-based collaborative writing have shown that task modality impacts peer interaction patterns and attention to form. However, these studies have primarily focused on contrasting a face-to-face oral condition with a text-based synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC) environment. Few studies have compared peer…

Given the growing trend of delivering classes through online and virtual environments, it is vital to gain a nuanced understanding of students' online research learning experiences, the factors that contributed to their choice of learning modality, the challenges they encountered, and the effective online research teaching practices and strategies…

The paper presents the results of an investigation into the virtual teamwork of culturally mixed teams engaged in common projects in international settings. Data was collected from students attending four different universities on four continents (Asia, Europe, North America, and South America). They worked for a semester, in virtual teams, to…

This study investigated: (1) the challenges encountered by a heterogeneous group of first year undergraduates during a synchronous on-line collaborative writing activity conducted through Google Classroom using Google Docs; and (2) their perceptions of the pedagogical approach. Five sub-groups of undergraduates participated in the study, and their…