Knowledge management systems: issues, challenges, and benefits
Communications of the AIS
Content analysis schemes to analyze transcripts of online asynchronous discussion groups: A review
Computers & Education - Methodological issue in researching CSCL
Effects of representational guidance on domain specific reasoning in CSCL
Computers in Human Behavior
| Hi-index | 0.00 |
Prior research has suggested that higher levels of knowledge construction e.g., where opinions are argued, challenged, or negotiated have rarely been demonstrated in student online discussions. In this study, the authors replicate prior research on group size, discussion duration, and student facilitation techniques to examine the influence of these factors on the attainment of higher level knowledge construction. Data were collected from 12 online discussion forums involving undergraduate students and students' reflection logs. Analysis of the data confirms a significant positive correction between higher level knowledge construction occurrences and group size. No correlation is found between the discussion duration and the occurrences of higher level knowledge construction. Further analysis between the higher and lower performing forums suggests that a certain critical mass, which appears to be a group size of about 10 participants, may be required to direct the discussion to advanced levels of knowledge construction. In addition, results show that students in higher performing forums used the facilitation technique of pointing, highlighting unanswered or unresolved issues statistically significantly more than their counterparts in lower performing forums.