title:
Collaborative Learning in Online Environment: An Exploratory Student of MLIS Students' Experiences in Group Assignments
creator:
Shahvar, Shabnam
subject:
Dissertations, Academic.
description:
Learning as part of a group, or social learning, is an important way to help students gain experience in collaboration and develop new skills. An online environment provides opportunities for students to participate in collaborative learning. Learning activities can be designed to support the creation of a learning community. These activities can vary from participation in discussion boards to participating in small group activities (Koh & Hill, 2009). This dissertation research study aimed to investigate, explore, and examine the relationship among social presence, both performance and perception, and online collaborative learning with Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) students’ satisfaction and success. A mixed methods approach with a sequential explanatory design was employed. It involved two phases: Phase I, a descriptive quantitative study, and Phase II, a qualitative study. Phase I featured an online survey with 457 respondents from American Library Association (ALA)-accredited Library and Information Science (LIS) master’s programs. Phase II consisted of follow-up interview sessions with 29 students who completed the online survey. Participants were asked to indicate their agreement level with 15 performance statements and 13 perception statements using seven-point Likert scales. The highest-rated positive performance statement was: “I actively exchanged my ideas with group members” (f=407). The highest-rated positive perception statement was: “I felt comfortable expressing positive feelings (being happy/satisfied about something) during group assignment” (f=410). Both Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis H test revealed gender, age, social media usage, number of enrolled online courses, percentage of group collaboration, group size, and computer proficiency showed statistically significant differences among variables in performance statements. For perception statements, gender, age, number of enrolled online courses, percentage of group collaboration, group size, computer proficiency, and Internet proficiency revealed statistically significant differences among variables. Spearman’s rho revealed a strong positive correlation between satisfaction level and 13 performance statements and satisfaction level with 10 perception statements. Additionally, Spearman’s rho correlation test signified a positive correlation among social climate and success in online environment. Participants’ responses indicated that Google Suite (f=430) was the collaborative tool and platform most often used by participants. Participants discussed other related topics associated with the online collaboration. These topics were: Benefits as “meeting new people” and “enhanced creativity;” Challenges as “time-consuming process,” “scheduling conflict and lack of contribution,” and “frustration and anxiety;” Success factors and Facilitators as “communication,” “equal participation,” and “transparent flow of information.” Participants concluded the online surveys with comments and suggestions on online collaboration and collaborative learning. Responses from the follow-up interview sessions revealed three main themes: Group Composition, Group Outcome, and Group Collaboration. Group Composition describes the overall mix of characteristics among the people in the group. Several attributes for group composition were extracted: Age-gap, Gender diversity, Group formation, and Group size. Three major categories for Group Outcome were Independence, Interdependence, and Social media. Interviewees reported that they performed better independently and explained their reasons as being self-conscious and self-motivated. Some reported that being a procrastinator was the reason they performed better in group collaboration. These individuals stated that having multiple deadlines and being accountable to others forced them to perform better in group. Participants were also asked about the impacts of social media on their performance. They noted similarities between the structure of social media platforms and their online collaborative tools, which added more comfortable interactions and ease of use to the members. Based on the findings of this study, a model for MLIS students’ online collaborative learning was proposed. This model includes six major stages. These stages are: instructor’s role, group composition, group outcome, group collaboration, successful collaboration, and satisfaction.
publisher:
Simmons College (Boston, Mass.)
contributor:
date:
2018
type:
Text
format:
1 PDF (222 Pages)
identifier:
td_lis_2018_ss
source:
language:
English
relation:
coverage:
rights:
Material from the Simmons University Archives collections are made available for study purposes only. For more information, or to request rights to reproduce or reuse any material, contact the University Archives at archives@simmons.edu.
