The Illusion of Collaboration in the Online Learning Context

• In Event: Thursday Roundtable Session 4:20 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Technology for Collaboration (Table 27)

Abstract

This study employed distance ethnography to assess at a fine-grain level the social and cognitive interactions of a trio of collaborators in a natural setting—an object-oriented, small-group project in an online writing course. The results reveal several ways that learner dispositions and prior knowledge manifest as barriers to productive interactions, including tendencies toward indirect and unidirectional communication; siloed workspaces and individual orientations to group assignments; unequal coordination of work; and the preservation of individual autonomy to the detriment of group knowledge objects. The study has pedagogical and theoretical implications related to the theory of transactional distance (TTD) and collaborative cognitive load theory (CCLT) and pedagogical and methodological implications for the integration of reflective-practitioner journals.

Authors

• Jill C Woods, West Virginia University

• Malayna Bernstein, University of Toronto