Browsing by Subject "Computer-supported collaborative learning"

Learning in collaboration with others with the support of a computer has been found to improve learning results and increase learner satisfaction in comparison to other methods of learning online, when implemented successfully. Many studies have, however, found that it is common that there is very little social interaction when learning online. This has been shown to be related to students dropping out, low levels of motivation and generally fails to harness the benefit of learning in collaboration with others.The aim of this study is to analyze learner's motivation to collaborate in an online course. Some studies regarding the motivation to collaborate exist in the tradition of computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) but very few have taken into account the situational nature of motivation. The participants in this study were students taking part in an online course on responsible business at a university in Finland (N = 179). Their motivation was sampled by triggering the Situational Motivation Questionnaire (SIMS) when they performed collaborative acts, using what is termed context-sensitive ecological momentary assessment. The students' patterns of interaction were studied using social network analysis based on their use of the chat function afforded by the learning platform. Students were found to experience more extrinsic than intrinsic forms of motivation to collaborate on a situational level. Motivation did not appear to be affected by progression in the course or deadlines. Participation in the social interaction was moderately high, varied a lot from student to student and appeared to be clustered to sub-groups within the social network. Intrinsic motivation was more likely to be experienced in positions of lower centrality and betweenness in the social network. Due to there being very little earlier research into this topic using similar methods, these results provide important new insights into why students collaborate in an online environment.