From Exploring Ideas to Discovering Co-Constructed Meaning: Comparing Students in Different Structures of Computer-Mediated Discussion

• In Event: 72.049 - Roundtable Session 34
  In Roundtable Session: 72.049-4 - Contemporary Scholarship in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning

Abstract

Using data from the transcripts of each day's discussion in a graduate-level course across two semesters, the present study examined how students' meaning making progressed during their synchronous computer-mediated classroom discussion after face-to-face lecture. Specifically, this study compared the effect on students' collaborative knowledge construction of two different instructional designs: having a warm-up online discussion activity at the day's beginning (i.e., Pre-Post) versus having a discussion after face-to-face only (i.e., Post-only). Results showed that, compared to Post-only students, Pre-Post students on average posted more comments indicating that they were in a phase of negotiating meaning or applying newly constructed meaning. Moreover, Pre-Post students overall tended to progress beyond the phase of simply sharing ideas and toward more sophisticated phases.

Authors

• Jeonghyun Jonna Lee, The University of Texas - Austin

• Rachel E. Gaines, The University of Texas - Austin

• J. Hannah Park, The University of Texas - Austin

• Kyle M. Williams, The University of Texas at Austin

• Eunjeong Choi, The University of Texas - Austin

• Sun Young Hwang, The University of Texas at Austin

• Lina Mattar, The University of Texas - Austin

• Diane L. Schallert, The University of Texas - Austin