Abstract ▼ AI-Helper

The purpose of this study was to analyze how students interact when they perform the group activity in the web 2.0 based CSCL(Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning) environment. The research questions addressed in this study were designed to provide information on the characteristics of the stud...

The purpose of this study was to analyze how students interact when they perform the group activity in the web 2.0 based CSCL(Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning) environment. The research questions addressed in this study were designed to provide information on the characteristics of the students interaction activity system that facilitates the quality of the group activity. The research questions examine the following: 1. What are the characteristics of the students interaction activity system for the group work in the web 2.0 based CSCL environment? 2. Is there any difference in the students interaction activity system by the quality of the group activity product? To investigate these research questions, 39 undergraduate students were asked to do a group activity forming a group of 5 to 7 students. They used the instant messenger services to communicate each other as a group. Using the Constant Comparison Method, the messages that students produced through the instant messenger were coded and grouped into 13 themes of the students interaction activity. The 13 themes of students interaction activities were categorized into four activity subsystems: Production subsystem, Consumption subsystem, Exchange subsystem, and Distribution subsystem. As results, the students interaction activity system was found to have the following characteristics: First, students did the interaction categorized into the consumption subsystem the most(54.5%), then the production subsystem the second(36.3%), the distribution subsystem the third(7.7%), and the exchange subsystem the least(1.5%). Second, they utilized various socio-cultural components of the activity system to collaborate for the group work. Third, there were both reciprocal and contradictory interactions between the socio-cultural components of the students interaction activity system that affect students collaboration for their group work. The differences in the students interaction activity system by the quality of the group work product were analyzed as follows: First, the students of the high-quality group work performing group did interactions resulting in the elaboration of the group work more while the students of the low-quality group work performing group did interactions organizing the group meeting schedules and reporting the problems more. Second, the students of the high-quality group work performing group did more interactions produced by the reciprocal relationship between the socio-cultural components of the interaction activity system while the students of the low-quality group work performing group did more interactions generated by the contradictory relationship between the socio-cultural components of the interaction activity system. After discussing the characteristics of the students interaction activity system and the differences of the students interaction activity system based on the quality of the group work, the study suggested some instructional strategies facilitating the students interaction in the web-2.0 CSCL environment.

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