An Evaluation Of Low Versus High-Collaboration In Online Learning

Faculty from the SOE, SPFC, and SBGE, along with SOE grad students and an undergrad psychology major working in ETM collaborated on a study that was recently published in the Online Learning Journal. The study was a product from a year-long faculty learning community project sponsored by CSFD and ETM.

The study explored how the use of high collaboration technologies such as Google Docs and Google Hangouts impacted the level of learning presence students demonstrate while participating in a small group project. The low-collaboration group made minimal use of an asynchronous discussion forum for collaboration. Differences in collaboration were measured using student grades, peer evaluation, pre and posttest, and the community of inquiry survey. In addition, quantitative content analysis and social network analysis were used to assess collaboration by examining learning presence in the two groups.

Wicks, D., Craft, B., Lee, D., Lumpe, A., Henrikson, R., Baliram, N., Bian, X., Mehlberg, S., & Wicks, K. (2015). An Evaluation of Low Versus High-Collaboration in Online Learning. Online Learning Journal, 19(4). Retrieved from http://olj.onlinelearningconsortium.org/index.php/olj/article/view/552