Leveraging learning technologies for collaborative writing in an online pharmacotherapy course

The purpose of this project was to evaluate the development and delivery of a hypertext case scenario document to be used as the capstone assessment tool for doctoral-level physical therapy students. The integration of Web-based collaborative tools (PBworks? and Google Sites?) allowed students in this all-online course to apply their pharmacotherapy knowledge in a physical therapy patient scenario, while working with colleagues to determine the best route of patient care. Students developed digital writing skills imperative to a patient-centered, collaborative health-care field, and practiced evidence-based patient care. The findings demonstrate that the implementation of collaborative digital writing with a hypertext document case scenario assessment as the primary assessment tool in this online pharmacotherapy course delivered to doctoral-level physical therapy students is a feasible and effective educational strategy.     

Student learning performance in online collaborative learning

Education and Information Technologies - Online collaborative learning (OCL) has received significant attention, but the ultimate goal of adopting OCL is neglected, especially in higher education...     

Orchestrating interdependence in an international online learning community

This paper focuses on research into the student experience as participants in the development of an international online community. The background context for this is an international master’s programme and the specific context for the research is a module on Digital Media Applications (DMA), which are outlined. The programme design emphasises peer and formative assessment practices and the pedagogical approach aims to foster group collaboration in international teams. Following an overview of the research methods adopted, a number of emergent themes from the data analysis of student diaries are discussed, including issues of language, culture and identity. In conclusion, we offer some reflections on these issues and discuss the underpinning assumptions (in relation to assessment practices in particular) that have given direction to our subsequent ongoing research and development.     

Interactive learning in an urban environmental education online course

Online courses play an increasing role in professional development of environmental educators, yet little information is available on the interactive processes involved in online learning. We examined the relationship of three types of interactions in an urban environmental education online course – participant–participant, participant–instructor, and participant–content – to four course outcomes: participants’ motivation to learn, intent to adapt ideas and information learned through the course in their practice, actual adaptation of ideas in their practice, and development of professional networks. Content analysis was used to characterize participants’ and instructors’ weekly online posts and comments, and generalized estimation equation modeling was used to explore the relationships between interactions and outcomes. The results showed that participant–content interaction had significant positive relationships with participants’ motivation to learn, intent to adapt ideas, and adaptation of ideas. Participant–participant interaction had significant positive relationships with participants’ motivation to learn, and development of professional networks with each other. Finally, participant–instructor interaction had a significant positive relationship with participants’ development of professional networks. The results of this study can be used to improve professional development online courses for environmental educators.     

Examining the relationship among student perception of support, course satisfaction, and learning outcomes in online learning

Support for student learning is a key element in optimizing student learning experiences in any learning environment and its importance has been widely discussed. This study looked at student support, particularly in the course context, focusing mainly on guidance provided to students within a course. Three categories of support were identified and used for the purpose of this study: instructional, peer, and technical support. A total of 110 students completed an online survey on students' perceptions of support and course satisfaction in an undergraduate online course at a large southeastern university. The results showed perceived support was significantly related to their overall satisfaction of the online course. The findings of this study suggest that teachers should communicate what types of support are available to students and provide an easy way of accessing and taking advantage of the support.     

Effects of feedback on collaborative writing in an online learning environment

The need for supporting student writing has received much attention in writing research. One specific type of support is feedback—including peer feedback—on the writing process. Despite the wealth of literature on both feedback and academic writing, there is little empirical evidence on what type of feedback best promotes writing in online environments. This article reports on research that tries to determine what type of feedback best improves the quality of collaborative writing and what the effects of feedback are on student learning in an environment based on asynchronous written communication. The results reveal that concerning the type of feedback, epistemic feedback or epistemic and suggestive feedback best improve the quality of collaborative writing performance. The nature of the feedback-giver (whether teacher feedback or teacher and peer) makes a difference to the final text only when the feedback is epistemic, or epistemic and suggestive.     

Self-directed learning to develop autonomy in an online ESP community

Low foreign language achievers in vocational education often have a lack of learning strategies, a tendency to feel frustrated, and unwillingness to be involved. In order to develop vocational college students’ autonomy, this study integrated on-site workshops with an online learning community by means of self-directed learning English for specific purposes (ESP). The results show that the online ESP community developed students into autonomous learners by (1) employing resource-based approach to download learning materials for preview and review, (2) utilizing curriculum-based approach to view online photos for monitoring their role-play and interactions in the learning processes and taking e-assessment for evaluating learning progress, and (3) using technology-based approach for interacting with their peers. The students developed learner autonomy to achieve significant better learning outcomes in the post-test. It was implied that self-directed learning with little teacher intervention of integrating on-site and online learning community could develop learner autonomy in ESP.     

Building an online academic learning community among undergraduate students

Online learning communities are frequently created for higher education students; however, these are most often designed to cater to a particular unit or subject. In an effort to strengthen the Bachelor of Arts course at the University of New England, the author sought to create an online space that would promote an interdisciplinary and collegial dialogue among their broad on- and off-campus student cohort. This paper examines the building of an academic community among a large and diverse group of undergraduate students on a Moodle platform. The paper tracks the development of the multi-layered portal from the initial stages of planning to the indicators of strong engagement taken up by students, and eventually leading to the creation of similar portals across the university. In examining this process this paper highlights the shared desire by distance education students and academics for authentic and personal higher education participation regardless of the students’ location.     

A flexible framework for online collaborative learning

This paper presents a framework for online collaborative learning, also known as telecollaboration. At the centre of this flexible framework are online collaborative educational experiences where knowledge creation and knowledge in action are the nexus of social, teaching and cognitive presence based on the Community of Inquiry model of Garrison, Anderson and Archers [Garrison, D.R., Anderson, T., and Archer, W. (1999). Critical thinking in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. Internet and Higher Education, 2(2–3), 87–105]. The framework provided should guide educators as they design, develop and implement authentic educational experiences within local, national or international settings in partnership with other educational stakeholders.     

Improving collaborative learning in online software engineering education

Team projects are commonplace in software engineering education. They address a key educational objective, provide students critical experience relevant to their future careers, allow instructors to set problems of greater scale and complexity than could be tackled individually, and are a vehicle for socially constructed learning. While all student teams experience challenges, those in fully online programmes must also deal with remote working, asynchronous coordination, and computer-mediated communications all of which contribute to greater social distance between team members. We have developed a facilitation framework to aid team collaboration and have demonstrated its efficacy, in prior research, with respect to team performance and outcomes. Those studies indicated, however, that despite experiencing improved project outcomes, students working in effective software engineering teams did not experience significantly improved individual achievement. To address this deficiency we implemented theoretically grounded refinements to the collaboration model based upon peer-tutoring research. Our results indicate a modest, but statistically significant (p?=?.08), improvement in individual achievement using this refined model.     

Task-related and social regulation during online collaborative learning

This study investigated how students collaborate in a CSCL environment and how this collaboration affects group performance. To answer these questions, the collaborative process of 101 groups of secondary education students when working on a historical inquiry task was analyzed. Our analyses show that group members devote most of their efforts to regulation of task-related activities. For example, by formulating plans or strategies or monitoring task progress. Group members also engaged in social activities often (e.g., disclosing personal information, joking). Less attention was paid to exchange of task-related information (e.g., asking task-related questions) and regulation of social activities (e.g., planning and monitoring the collaboration). Exploratory factor analysis was used to identify the interrelationships between the different collaborative activities. This analysis showed that collaborative activities can be grouped in four broad categories: discussion of information, regulation of task-related activities, regulation of social activities, and social activities. These activities were then used to predict group performance using multiple regression analysis. No effect of discussion of information and regulation of task-related activities on group performance were found. Regulation of social activities positively affected group performance, whereas social interaction negatively affected group performance. As in this study no inferences could be made about the causal relation between collaboration and performance, future research should attempt to focus on this relationship, for example by investigating more closely how different individual and group factors affect collaboration and group performance.     

An interactive online course: A collaborative design model

The purpose of this paper is to describe the evaluation results of using an interactive design model for the development of an online course. Specifically, it examines: (a) how an interactive design model was used to develop collaborative and cooperative learning activities; (b) how activities were structured to promote the level and quality of communications among students, as peers, and between students and the instructors; and (c) how students responded to such interactive design model. The paper also provides information about the delivery process and describes what happened when this interactive model was fully implemented and used.     

Characterising the different blogging behaviours of students on an online distance learning course

Since the early years of the twenty‐first century there has been an increasing interest in using Web 2.0 technologies to support learning in Higher Education. However, previous research suggests that the integration of blogging into courses can be difficult and cites problems with issues such as student compliance. We adopt a learner‐centred perspective and explore students’ (rather than their educators’) understanding of how blogs and blogging can support distance learning in Higher Education. We report on a study of UK Open University (OU) students on an online distance learning Masters course, that has enabled us to determine the issues that are important to these bloggers, and we describe five ways in which they appropriated blogging to suit their individual needs. We discuss the importance of making blogging activities flexible so that students can blog to meet their own needs whilst still attending to the requirements of their course.     

The transformation of an online learning community from an organised facility to an organic fraternity

An online community of learning within a distance doctoral programme was explored to determine if and how the community evolved and transformed over time. This part-time doctoral programme gathers students into cohorts and runs a structured community with students and faculty for 18 months before students confirm candidatures and begin individual work with their own supervisors for the remaining 4–5 years of study. In particular, this study sought to determine if and how the community of learning continued and developed after the 18 months of shared structured learning had been completed. This research was initiated and conducted by the students, giving insights into the community from the students’ perspective. Findings are that the community has survived and will continue in the short-term at least, but with fewer members and operating in a different manner. There has been an ongoing transformation of the community, largely driven by choice and necessity.     

Agency online: trends in a university learning course

This article aims to investigate how university students perform agency in an online course and whether the collaborative nature of the course affects such expression. A total of 11 online web forums involving 18 students (N = 745 posts in total) were qualitatively analysed through the use of a codebook composed of five categories (individual, interpersonal, epistemic, transformative and collective) and several sub-categories purposely developed for the sake of this research. The results show that each category follows a specific path, although two events – the re-mixing of the groups and the assumption of the peer-tutor role – particularly affected the evolution of trends. Although this study needs further development, the authors believe that an in-depth understanding of the nature of agency, including how to analyse it as well as empower it when implementing blended educational activities, engages relevant theoretical and pedagogical issues.     

在线协作学习中小组学习投入的分析模型构建及应用

在协作学习中学习投入与学习成效紧密相关,是学生进行有效参与和深度学习的必要条件。但目前的研究大多针对个人学习投入,缺乏在协作学习中小组学习投入的相关研究。在前人研究基础上,本研究从认知投入、行为投入、社会投入、情感投入四个维度构建了在线协作学习中小组学习投入的分析模型,并通过实证研究进一步探索小组投入分析模型各维度与小组学习成绩之间的关系。结果表明,在小组学习投入中行为投入、社交投入与小组成绩呈显著正相关关系,而积极、消极、困惑三类情感投入则与小组成绩呈负相关关系。研究同时发现,高分组在中立情感投入、认知投入的问题和元认知维度中的均值都高于低分组。最后,通过分析在线小组学习投入与成绩之间的关系,为今后优化学习支持服务以及提高小组成员协作质量提供了依据。     

Supporting collaborative dissection through the development of an online wiki positively impacts the learning of veterinary anatomy

An innovative series of dissections of the canine abdomen was created to facilitate social distancing in the dissection room following COVID-19 restrictions imposed in the UK. In groups of six, first-year veterinary students took turns dissecting selected parts of the canine abdomen while maintaining social distancing and documenting their work with video and photographs. Here, students learned about the canine abdominal anatomy by dissecting, recording the dissections of others in their group, and compiling the recorded material into a collaborative electronic media portfolio (Wiki). An online formative multiple-choice test was created to test students' knowledge of the canine abdominal anatomy. The result analysis showed that although students achieved the learning outcomes only by studying the Wiki, they had better performance in the anatomical areas where they learned through the dissection (p < 0.05). Student performance was very similar in the areas in which they were present in the dissection room and participated in recording the dissection compared with the areas that they effectively dissected (p > 0.05). A qualitative thematic analysis was developed to understand students' opinions via their feedback on this dissection approach. Our results showed that student collaboration and the development of practical skills were the most valued aspects of this dissection teaching initiative. Moreover, these results show that developing a group Wiki has a positive impact on student achievement of learning objectives, with a practical hands-on dissection being fundamental for the optimal learning of the canine abdominal anatomy.