Abstract
Assigning roles to individual students can influence the group's knowledge construction (KC) process during online discussions. Twenty-one students were divided into two groups and assigned rotating roles for eight one-week asynchronous online discussions. The KC contributions of all 252 posts in the discussion were coded using a five phase scheme; then statistical discourse analysis was applied to identify segments of discussion characterized by particular aspects of KC and "pivotal posts"-those posts which initiated new segments of discussion. Finally, the influences of assigned student roles on pivotal posts and KC were modeled. The results indicate that most online discussions had a single pivotal post separating the discussion into two distinct segments: the first dominated by a lower KC phase; the second dominated by a higher KC phase. The pivotal posts that initiated later segments were often contributed mid-discussion by students playing one of two summarizing roles (Synthesizer and Wrapper). Copyright © 2011, International Society of the Learning Sciences [ISLS].
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Connecting Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning to Policy and Practice: Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL 2011) |
Editors | Hans Spada, Gerry Stahl, Naomi Miyake, Nancy Law |
Place of Publication | Hong Kong |
Publisher | International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS) |
Pages | 64-71 |
Volume | I |
ISBN (Print) | 9780578091525 |
Publication status | Published - 2011 |