An official website of the United States government
Collaborative learning can improve student learning, student persistence, and the classroom climate. While work has documented the tradeoffs of face-to-face collaboration and asynchronous, online learning, the trade-offs between asynchronous (student-scheduled) and synchronous (instructor-scheduled) collaborative and online learning have not been explored. Structured roles can maximize the effectiveness of collaborative learning by helping all students participate, but structured roles have not been studied in online settings. We performed a quasi-experimental study in two courses—Computer Architecture and Numerical Methods—to compare the effects of asynchronous collaborative learning without structured roles to synchronous collaborative learning with structured roles. We use a data-analytics approach to examine how these approaches affected the student learning experience during formative collaborative learning assessments. Teams in the synchronous offering made higher scoring submissions (5-10% points better on average), finished assessments more efficiently (11-16 minutes faster on average), and had greater equality in the total number of submissions each student made (for example, significant increase of 13% in the mean equality score among all groups).
more »
« less
Developing an Observation Protocol for Cooperative Learning
Use of structured roles to facilitate cooperative learning is an evidence-based practice that has been shown to improve student performance, attitude, and persistence. The combination of structured roles and activities also helps build students’ process skills including communication and metacognition. While these benefits have been shown in a variety of disciplines, most prior work has focused on in-person, synchronous settings, and few studies have looked at online, synchronous settings. With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we need a better understanding of how cooperative learning takes place online and what differences may exist between online and in-person modalities. This work-in-progress serves to document our development of an observation protocol to help us answer research questions such as the following: Do group members participate equally? Do group members’ contributions match their role? How do groups connect and bond with each other? How do groups seek help?
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 2121412
- PAR ID:
- 10379678
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
Maker activities help students connect to STEAM content through hands-on activities that emphasize the roles of mentors, peers, and in-person interaction with physical artifacts. Despite the positive affordances of these activities, they do not translate well to online settings. Without immediate in-person feedback mechanisms, unstructured making activities may lead to frustration and decreased engagement. How do communities help students develop identities as future engineers if local help and mentorship is not available? The proposed study aims to address challenges of scaffolding collaboration during remote maker sessions through investigation of a novel projection device that allows users to talk & share gestures around a common physical artifact while in separate locations.more » « less
-
null (Ed.)Abstract Problem-based learning (PBL) has been effectively used within BME education, though there are several challenges in its implementation within courses with larger enrollments. Furthermore, the sudden transition to online learning from the COVID-19 pandemic introduced additional challenges in creating a similar PBL experience in an online environment. Online constrained PBL was implemented through asynchronous modules and synchronous web conferencing with rotating facilitators. Overall, facilitators perceived web conferencing facilitation to be similar to in-person, but noted that students were more easily “hidden” or distracted. Students did not comment on web conferencing facilitation specifically, but indicated the transition to online PBL was smooth. Course instructors identified that a fully synchronous delivery as well as modifications of Group Meeting Minutes assignments as potential modifications for future offerings. Future work will aim to address the perceptions and effectiveness of web conferencing facilitation for PBL courses within an undergraduate BME curriculum, as web conferencing could prove to be another significant breakthrough in addressing challenges of problem-based learning courses.more » « less
-
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, videoconferencing platforms have become an essential part of our social, educational, and work lives. Furthermore, the United States continues to grapple with criminal justice reform, employing processes such as restorative justice to replace antiquated punitive approaches to justice with a focus on the multifaceted needs of communities. Essential to the delivery of restorative justice, restorative justice practitioners are community members trained in the process and approaches of restorative practice. Like everyone else, restorative justice practitioners have transitioned from historically in-person facilitation to online facilitation, integrating videoconferencing platforms into their justice-related work. Diverse communities within Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) have been examined in light of their digital transitions and the utilization of various digital tools, including videoconferencing platforms prompted by the pandemic. However, the distinctive perspective of restorative justice practitioners in adapting restorative approaches to an online format is unexplored. Therefore, our research examines how restorative practitioners use videoconferencing platforms for justice-related interventions. To do so, we conducted six semi-structured focus group interviews with 22 US-based restorative facilitators to learn about their experiences with online delivery of restorative justice. Our research revealed that restorative facilitators uphold restorative values in their online delivery by embracing the restorative facilitation process and fostering dialogue. Furthermore, we posit that the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) community can acquire valuable insights from restorative practitioners on nurturing and sustaining intimacy and connection online.more » « less
-
People typically learn programming from teachers in in-person courses or online tutorials. Interactive computer tutors---systems that deliver learning content interactively---have become more prevalent in online settings for teaching skills such as computer programming. Research has shown the efficiency and effectiveness of learning programming from teachers, interactive computer tutors, and a combination of both. However, there is limited understanding of learners' comparative perspectives about their experience learning from these different resources. We conducted an exploratory study using semi-structured interviews, recruiting 20 participants that had experience learning programming from both teachers and interactive computer tutors. We identified factors that learners like and dislike from both learning methods and discussed the strengths and weaknesses of them. Based on our findings, we propose suggestions for designers of interactive computer tutors, and for programming educators.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- The DOI is not currently available.
