Asynchronous Learning Networks (ALNs) make the process of collaboration more transparent, because a transcript of conference messages can be used to assess individual roles and contributions and the collaborative process itself. This study considers three aspects of ALNs: the design; the quality of the resulting knowledge construction process; and cohesion, role and power network structures. The design is evaluated according to the Social Interdependence Theory of Cooperative Learning. The quality of the knowledge construction process is evaluated through Content Analysis; and the network structures are analyzed using Social Network Analysis of the response relations among participants during online discussions. In this research we analyze data from two three-monthlong ALN academic university courses: a formal, structured, closed forum and an informal, nonstructured, open forum. We found that in the structured ALN, the knowledge construction process reached a very high phase of critical thinking and developed cohesive cliques. The students took on bridging and triggering roles, while the tutor had relatively little power. In the non-structured ALN, the knowledge construction process reached a low phase of cognitive activity; few cliques were constructed; most of the students took on the passive role of teacher-followers; and the tutor was at the center of activity. These differences are statistically significant. We conclude that a well-designed ALN develops significant, distinct cohesion, and role and power structures lead the knowledge construction process to high phases of critical thinking.

A meta-analysis of the comparative distance education (DE) literature between 1985 and 2002 was conducted. In total, 232 studies containing 688 independent achievement, attitude, and retention outcomes were analyzed. Overall results indicated effect sizes of essentially zero on all three measures and wide variability. This suggests that many applications of DE outperform their classroom counterparts and that many perform more poorly. Dividing achievement outcomes into synchronous and asynchronous forms of DE produced a somewhat different impression. In general, mean achievement effect sizes for synchronous applications favored classroom instruction, while effect sizes for asynchronous applications favored DE. However, significant heterogeneity remained in each subset.

Over the past 15 years, educational technologists have been dabbling with a research technique known as quantitative content analysis (QCA). Although it is characterized as a systematic and objective procedure for describing communication, readers find insufficient evidence of either quality in published reports. In this paper, it is argued that QCA should be conceived of as a form of testing and measurement. If this argument is successful, it becomes possible to frame many of the problems associated with QCA studies under the well-articulated rubric of test validity. Two sets of procedures for developing the validity of a QCA coding protocol are provided, (a) one for developing a protocol that is theoretically valid and (b) one for establishing its validity empirically. The paper is concerned specifically with the use of QCA to study educational applications of computer-mediated communication. The primary role of networked computers in higher education has shifted from presenting structured, preprogrammed learning materials to facilitating communication. In turn, the role of educational technology researchers has expanded to include the role of communication researcher. In the late 1980s, studies began to appear that incorporated new perspectives, new methods, and new techniques. One of the most promising was quantitative content analysis (QCA). Berelson (1952) defined QCA as “a research technique for the systematic, objective, and quantitative description of the manifest content of communication ” (p. 18). In this context, description is a process that includes segmenting communication content into units, assigning each unit to a category, and providing tallies for

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This study looks at online discussions within the context of a group endeavor and attempts to evaluate three assertions: 1) students in an online discussion proceed through higher levels of thinking; 2) Online conversations follow an “ebb and flow ” pattern; 3) The level of the first posting to the discussion influences the level of subsequent postings. Postings were classified by the Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives and were graphed to help analyze the assertions. There was only modest support for the first assertion and better support for the second and third assertions. Analyzing online discussions as a group endeavor may well prove an interesting area of research for those interested in applying the existing body of literature and theory on group discussions in the face-to-face arena to the online environment. Researchers need to evaluate whether this literature is applicable to online discussions and what distinctions can legitimately be made between group discussions in the face-to-face or online mode.

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A conversational method of teaching whereby the students engage each other as a key part of the learning experience achieves a higher percentage of high grades (and presumably better knowledge acquisition) than standard teaching practices. Standard teaching practices mean students often attend lectures to absorb and regurgitate the material presented during exams to test their understanding. This is what students (especially undergraduates) appear to understand as learning and the results are often disappointing. These students do not appear to be able to integrate received information with their own experience to date to create knowledge. In an attempt to improve this situation, we established a learning environment for a capstone Information Systems course where the students were driving their own learning (collaborative learning), within broad parameters established by the lecturer in charge. A key feature of this learning environment was a series of conversational workshops within which the students tested their ideas and concepts through face-to-face and online conversations among themselves. The pedagogy underpinning this approach is grounded in the belief that having to actively communicate with peers requires the articulation of current understanding with the view to change as alternative views are encountered. This paper presents the course content, curriculum structure, method of instruction and assessment for two years (2001 and 2002), discusses the approach adopted in terms of a model of collaborative learning, and looks at the outcomes from those years. For year, 2003 a plan for more structured research was put in place and that is also outlined.

Abstract. An exploratory study of students ’ engagement in online learning and knowledge building is presented in this paper. Learning in an online community, composed of students (pre-service teachers) and experts (experienced in-service schoolteachers and academics), is the study’s primary focus. Students ’ interaction and knowledge discourse structures, arising from individual readings of academic papers and asynchronous collaboration with peers and experts, are investigated using social network and content analysis techniques. Additionally, several new measures for exploring structural-qualitative aspects of knowledge discourse are introduced. Analysis revealed several important trends. First, students ’ interaction was more intensive in forums where experienced teachers participated, rather than students only. Second, students ’ individual discourse structures in their postings were quite deep, knowledge-focussed and elaborated; while students ’ replies were short, usually focussed on specific idea and contained a substantial amount of non-cognitive information. Overall, it is argued that students were engaged with the individual and collaborative knowledge building in the online learning community. Practical implications of the study results for development of courses are discussed.

This paper connects an online learning model to the rights to education that the online educational environments can provide. The model emerges from a study of ninety-two online learners and is composed of three kinds of inquiries, namely, independent inquiry, collaborative inquiry, and formative inquiry towards expert knowledge. Online learners naturally pursue and undertake these inquiries when they are equipped with communication channels and technologies. This model provides a thinking tool for integrating new media and technologies in an online learning environment in order to help students achieve their full rights to education.

This study’s aim is to describe and explore how 40 teacher students, engaged in courses in web-based learning environments, successively develop a collective competence to collaborate during two 15-credit courses in a period of 40 weeks. The collective competence of collaboration is here defined as the level of learning ability, a group of students express, when using dialogues as a tool for their own and other’s learning in a web-based learning environment. The students ’ contributions to the course assignments, the group responses and the collaborative discussions and dialogues were analysed and interpreted based on Bakhtin’s (1986, 2004) and Rommetveit’s (2003) theories on dialogic interactions and meaning potentials. The results describes three levels of thematic pattern in the dialogues as a competence to collaborate within the group. Keywords: Collaborative-, collective learning, asynchronous dialogues, dialogic interactions