Information and Organization
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This study is motivated by the interest of understanding the role of computer-supported rationale sharing in hybrid collaborative learning activities in higher education. A hybrid collaborative learning activity refers to a learning activity that includes both face-to-face collaboration and distributed collaboration. The activities that this study investigates require students to document and share with the group members their decision-making rationales of the shared tasks. Prior studies have shown that previous rationales play a role in present activities and others’ rationales affect one’s decision-making. As one way of understanding the effects of rationale sharing in a hybrid collaborative learning activity, this study investigates the effects of computer-supported rationale awareness in the activity. Logically speaking, sharing rationales among the group members supports one’s awareness of other group members’ rationales, i.e., rationale awareness. Thus, one aspect of the effects of rationale sharing in the activity is reflected from the effects of rationale awareness. More specifically, the focus of the study is to examine the effects of rationale sharing on the awareness of group members’ expertise and contribution with respect to the activity and on the development of group practice in a hybrid collaborative learning activity. Through an iterative design process, a group workspace tool was designed and implemented that supports both real time and asynchronous remote collaboration and provides a document-based group space for group members to share their rationales. A naturalistic study was conducted to understand the effects of computer-supported rationale awareness mediated by the group workspace. The findings of this dissertation study suggest that: being more aware of one’s collaborators’ rationales enhances awareness of collaborators’ contributions and expertise, impacts the group’s decision-making process, and facilitates the collective management of rationales. The results of the study show that the process of documenting rationales helped one in studying the course subjects. This study contributes to the study of designing meta-cognitive support in terms of providing awareness in group work or group learning setting by eliciting several design implications based on the students’ experience with the group workspace. This study contributes to the curriculum design by presenting evidence on the positive impacts of documenting the rationales in one’s learning process.