Kyungbin Kwon

This study explored what social interactions students exhibited during collaborative learning, and analyzed how the social interactions evolved in a computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environment. Six groups (n = 28) from an undergraduate online course were observed during a semester. Students' interactions were analyzed in two perspectives: group regulation and socioemotional. Cluster analysis was conducted to identify collaboration patterns of the groups. The analysis identified three collaborator clusters: one good and two poor. The good collaborators (named Early Active Collaborator) demonstrated: (1) intensive interactions among group members in the early collaboration phase, (2) positive socio-emotional interactions continuously, and (3) adaptive selections of group regulatory behaviors. The others showed dormant interactions throughout the projects and least socio-emotional …

Group coordination is a crucial component for successful collaborative learning, but is hard to achieve in an online learning environment. A web-based group coordination tool was developed based on metacognitive scaffolding principles for the study. The tool was implemented in an online course for a group project and its effects were investigated. A total of 59 students formed into 20 groups participated in and completed a project while being guided with the tool. Based on response rate to metacognitive prompts of the tool, groups were categorized as Active Metacognitive Team (AMT, n = 30) or Passive Metacognitive Team (PMT, n = 29). AMT showed higher positive interdependence than PMT at the end of the project. AMT perceived reciprocal help among group members while PMT did not. AMT also evaluated its group process higher than PMT did. These results show that groups who more actively used the …

This study examined the effects of self-explanation prompts on problem-solving performance. In total, 47 students were recruited and trained to debug web-program code in an online learning environment. Students in an open self-explanation group were asked to explain the problem cases to themselves, whereas a complete other-explanation group was provided with partial explanations and asked to complete them by choosing correct key-words. The results indicate that students in the open self-explanation condition (a) outperformed in a debugging task,(b) perceived higher confidence for their explanations, and (c) showed a strong positive relationship between the quality of their explanation and their performance. These results demonstrate the benefits of the open self-explanation prompts. Cognitive load of self-explanation and quality of explanation are discussed.Self-explanation refers to a reflective activity explaining to oneself a learning material in order to understand facts from the material or to repair misunderstanding during studying worked-out examples or reading exploratory texts (Chi, Bassok, Lewis, Reimann, & Glaser, 1989). It seems obvious that a student performs better at problem-solving tasks, generates inferences which facilitate conceptual understanding, and repairs flawed mental models as well when being encouraged to use the self-explanation strategy during learning (Chi, 2000; Chi, de Leeuw, Chiu, & La Vancher, 1994). Other studies have corroborated the self-explanation effect from various domains such as mathematics (Siegler, 2002; Wong, Lawson, & Keeves, 2002), programming (Pirolli & Recker, 1994), biology …

While previous research explores the experiences of Asian international students within traditional higher education communities in America, there is a lack of research on how the online learning environment impacts these students. The present qualitative study examined Asian international students'(n= 3) perceptions of isolation in online learning environments at a Midwestern University. Rooted in symbolic interactionism, students' perception of a virtual self was explored, as well as what factors increased feelings of loneliness, and how different styles of identity management resulted in differences in their coping strategies. Findings suggest that a deficiency of communication skills increased anxiety in interactions with others. Loss of social cues and a misunderstanding of nuance made it difficult to follow online conversations for Asian students. Interestingly, while they participated in online classes, students …

In this study, the effects of reflective self-explanations on conceptual understanding and problem solving are investigated in a domain of computer programming. After completing a multiple-choice test, 33 students were asked to reflect on and explain why their answers were correct or incorrect. Groups were divided for post hoc analysis based on the degree of reflective self-explanation and prior knowledge. Results indicated that students who actively engaged in the reflective self-explanation process performed better in problem solving tasks with minimal guidance. Prior knowledge was critical for effective reflection, especially recalling principles. Although low prior knowledge students tended to persist with their faulty mental models, self-explanation activities helped them to repair their models. The relationship between reflective self-explanation and prior knowledge is discussed.

We examined a theoretical perspective on reciprocal peer reviewing of writing. As an alternative to the traditional approach, Learning Writing by Writing, focusing on increasing writing opportunities, we proposed and tested a new hypothesis, Learning Writing by Reviewing. Reviewing is defined as a problem solving activity of practicing problem detection, diagnosis, and solution generation in peer writing. The results supported the hypothesis in that peer reviewers improve their own writing by reviewing peer writing.

Context: An online lecture capturing system (OLCS) was implemented in a medical school integrating problem-based learning curriculum. An academic investigation examining how medical students used OLCS and what were its educational effects were required.Aims: This study examined medical students’ perceptions of OLCS, actual usage of OLCS, and the effects on learning.Methods: An online questionnaire asking about the perceptions of OLCS was distributed to first and second year medical students. Individual student’s OLCS usage was analyzed descriptively. Cluster analysis was conducted based on the OLCS usage and students’ prior academic performance to reveal the academic effects of OLCS.Results: Most students (82 out of 106) perceived OLCS as an effective educational tool. Their actual use of OLCS, however, was low and quite variable depending on their needs and preferences. Reviewing …

The current experimental study examined the effects of graphic organizers in a collaborative learning context where students constructed knowledge during online discussions. As the results could vary depending on how students interacted with the graphic organizers, this study compared two different approaches: instructor-provided versus student-generated graphic organizers. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of receiving or generating graphic organizers on students’ engagement in online discussions. Thirty-six graduate students enrolled in an online graduate course participated in the study. While analyzing an instructional design case, students were asked to discuss design issues in a randomly assigned group. There were three conditions: control condition without graphic organizers, instructor-provided, and student-generated graphic organizers. Major findings revealed …

An online discussion facilitates students’ higher order thinking in online classes, especially when adopted with the instructor’s guidance. The current experimental study examined the effects of two different discussion representation tools (social and cognitive diagrams) on students’ discussion behaviors. The social diagram emphasized interactivity of participants by illustrating who posted messages and who replied. The cognitive diagram described how discussion topic evolved by summarizing main topics discussed. Thirteen graduate students enrolled in an online graduate course participated in the study. While analyzing five instructional cases, students were asked to discuss each case in a group that the instructor assigned randomly. For each case, one group was provided with the social diagram whereas the other with the cognitive diagram. Major findings revealed both tools facilitated online …

The purpose of this paper is to identify the types of students’ interaction, as well as their discussion patterns in an online course. The study took place in a large Midwestern University and 17 graduate students participated in the study. The primary data was obtained from students’ discussion forum postings. The researchers used both qualitative and quantitative approaches to describe and analyze the types of discussion and interaction. The researchers developed a coding scheme based on theories and models. The findings of the study reveal that computer mediated communication (CMC) has a positive potential to increase interaction among students. Furthermore, the findings confirm the effectiveness of asynchronous online environment in supporting online learning community. Participants were

Understanding the students’ programming misconceptions is critical in that it identifies the reasons why students make errors in programming and allows instructors to design instructions accordingly. This study investigated the mental models of programming concepts held by pre-service teachers who were novice programmers. In an introductory programming course, students were asked to solve problems that could be solved by utilizing conditional statements. They developed solution plans using pseudo code including a simplified natural language, symbols, diagrams, etc. Sixteen solution plans of three different types of problems were analyzed. As a result, the students’ egocentric and insufficient programming concepts were identified in terms of the misuse of variables, redundancy of codes, and weak problem-solving strategies. The results revealed that the students had difficulty designing solution plans that computers could execute correctly. They needed instructional supports to master how to express their solution plans so programs run as intended. Problem driven instructional designs for novice programmers were discussed.

The main purpose of this study was to improve the quality of online courses in Indiana University’s adult education graduate program. Researchers utilized Quality Matters™(QM) standards to evaluate the courses. A total of 24 students from five courses participated in the evaluation process. Three peer instructors also evaluated the courses based on the QM standards. The evaluations of both cohorts suggested the following:(1) the adult online graduate courses fulfilled the key components of QM standards in general;(2) students’ evaluations of the courses were quite consistent with the peer instructors’ evaluations;(3) areas identified as needing improvement were: to provide sufficient information about accessibility, technical support, and course orientation, and descriptions of instructional materials. Suggestions for improvement were discussed.

The current study examined the effects of different types of instructor comments on student engagement in an online discussion. In particular, this study examined three comment types: (1) praise-oriented comments, agreeing with students’ initial messages and recapping their ideas, (2) elaboration-encouraging comments, requesting elaboration on the initial messages, and (3) perspective-widening comments, suggesting different or thought-provoking opinions responding to the initial messages. Seventeen graduate students enrolled in an online course were recruited. A content analysis was employed to evaluate the levels of knowledge construction. Interactivity was measured by the number of posts and idea units. The findings revealed that perspective-widening comments facilitated students’ evaluation on the peer postings and brought up diverse perspectives, contributing to knowledge construction. While …

This study examined the types of learning behaviors students demonstrated while performing inquiry tasks. It also explored the relationship between the learning behaviors and students’ domain knowledge. We observed fourteen students in five groups during a ninth-grade biology course. Three types of learning behaviors (inquiry, collaborative, and minimally productive behaviors) were identified and time on each type was measured. The results suggest that students demonstrated different patterns according to the types of learning behaviors. Correlation analysis revealed that learning outcomes had a strong positive correlation with the inquiry behaviors but a strong negative correlation with the minimally productive behaviors. The results suggest that attention should be paid to facilitate the more meaningful inquiry behaviors while reducing minimally productive behaviors.

Evaluating the quality of students' programs is necessary for better teaching and learning. Although many innovative learning environments for computer science have been introduced, the scarcity of program evaluation frames and tools is a demanding issue in the teaching practice. This study examined the quality of students' Scratch programs by utilizing Dr. Scratch and by analyzing codes based on four computational concepts: conditions, loops, abstractions, and variables. Twenty-three Scratch programs from two classes of pre-service teachers from a university were examined. Dr. Scratch results revealed that Scratch programs demonstrated a middle level of competency in computational thinking. The analysis of computational concepts suggested that students had a sufficient understanding of the main concepts and demonstrated computing competency by applying the concepts into their programs. The study also discussed inefficient programming habits, instructional issues utilizing Scratch, and the importance of problem decomposition skills.