A Case Study of On-line Collaborative Knowledge Building

1. A Case Study of On-line Collaborative Knowledge Building Chun-Yi Lin Apr 24, 2006 P640

2. Background • On-line RN-BSN program • School of Nursing at IUPUI • Research class • Meet on-line for 11 weeks • Twenty-five students • One instructor

3. Purpose of Study • Interesting findings in the previous study • Student-student, and student-instructor Interactions • Sense of learning communities • Research Questions of this study • To explore students’ collaborative learning and knowledge building process in the online environment

4. Literature Review • Gerry Stahl. (2000). A model of collaborative knowledge building

5. Literature Review • Coding Schemes “Model of analyzing online processing of information” Henri 1992, Hara 2000

6. Research Methods • Qualitative Study • Content analysis • More than 1000 postings • Four modules • Online questionnaire • 15-item online questionnaire • 8 participants

7. Results • 1. The knowledge building process is visible while knowledge itself is growing and changing. • Students articulated ideas, shared understanding, clarified meanings, and negotiated solutions. • The course material is well-organized. It is separated into several units infour modules. • The instructor provided scaffoldings, such as different tasks in each unit, participation rules, prompt feedback.

8. Example

9. Results • 2. Students’ individual interests and backgrounds impact on the knowledge building process. • Students’ background: student profiles/ introducing yourself. • Inter-subjectivity/ Cognitive apprenticeship/ Guided participation • Not relevant? • “ There was a lot of idle chat in the forums hat I found extremely annoying and wasteful of my time. There were several instances when students used the forum to discuss bad experiences that had little to do with the course.”

10. Example • “It is amazing how far we have come. I have just started my nursing career and I can't wait to see where we will be twenty years down the road.  Sometimes I wish we could have those old nursing ways back because technology can sometimes be so frustrating, but it has also helped us so much and makes things a lot easier on the nurse.” • “Sandra, I really don't think you would like it when I was an LPN in the 1978. I worked at one of the hospital's in town. Sometime you may have IV pumps & sometimes you didn't & you had to time strip the Iv & actually stand & count the drops & set the roller clamp to the drip rate. You had nurse aides who were trained to due ekg's & even give respiratory treatments. The halls were very dark when you worked at night & you used a flashlight to check on your patients.  Instead of tube feedings we have now we would feed some patients there pureed diet via NG tube. “

11. Results • 3. Different perspectives co-exist in the on-line learning environment. • Six perspectives: personal, team, class, comparison, negotiation, and history perspective (Stahl, 2001) • Shifting focuses from individuals to group work

12. Example: Activities in this class: writing one minute papers, taking Oncourse test, posting answers to the faculty’s email, and critiquing research articles One minute paper • “they made me summarized the material which re-enforced the learning.” • “they not only get me thinking but help me see and learn so much from the comments and questions of others” • “you got a brief explanation on the material or data from everyone’s point of view. It made it easier to read everyone’s input and thought rather than reading a several page paper.” Research article critiques • “To take something apart and digest it really helps me to learn and apply it to practice.”

13. Results • 4. High level knowledge building process, such as negotiating meanings, seldom happened. • Need for appropriate tasks • “The benefit of this [different assignments] was that each discussion was unique and had new things to learn as opposed to everyone posting the same assignment which only slightly differed in the answers and made it difficult to come up with unique discussion.” “I don’t like it when all students are answering the same question and posting it in the forum – it is redundant.” • Ask instructor when students don’t understand “I emailed the instructor first and then other classmates. I always got quick, useful, supportive responses.”

14. Results • 5. Motivation?? Rules?? Tools?? • Motivation • Need for the bachelor degree and the flexibility of online education. • Positive experience of interactions • “ I had excellent experience with online communications. Postings were prompt and thorough and initiated a great deal of interaction and sharing. Communications with the instructor were always answered quickly and she was extremely supportive and friendly.”

15. Results • 5. Motivation?? Rules?? Tools?? • Deadline and participation rules facilitate or hinder from sharing knowledge with others? • “I felt that the posting deadline was a joke. Several of the class would respond at one rate while the others lagged behind.” • “I think the homework-posting deadline is effective and should not be changed. The respond deadline should extend at least 1-2 days after the homework-posting deadline” • “We were all expected to be polite and to participate fully. These rules helped in the sharing of knowledge and experiences of others.”

16. Results • 5. Motivation?? Rules?? Tools?? • Tools • Help the processes of articulating ideas, discussing issues, comparing different perspectives, and negotiating meanings? • “ Easy to assess. Homework was easy to post. Email was readily available and used frequently for communicating questions, deadlines and working on group projects” • “ Original Oncourse notified you of unread postings and new mail.”

17. Thank you!