Stefano Cacciamani

Role taking and knowledge building in a blended university course

Role taking is an established approach for promoting social cognition. Playing a specific role within a group could lead students to exercise collective cognitive responsibility for collaborative knowledge building. Two studies explored the relationship of role taking to participation in a blended university course. Students participated in the same knowledge-building activity over three consecutive, five-week modules and enacted four roles designed in alignment with knowledge building pedagogy (Scardamalia and Bereiter 2010). In Study 1, 59 students were distributed into groups with two conditions: students who took a role in Module 2 and students who did not take a role, using Module 1 and 3 as pre and post tests. Results showed no differences in participation in Module 1, higher levels of writing and reading for role takers in Module 2, and this pattern was sustained in Module 3. Students with the Synthesizer role were the most active in terms of writing and the second most active for reading; students with the Social Tutor role were the most active for reading. In Study 2, 143 students were divided into groups with two conditions: students who took a role in Module 1 and students who did not take a role. Content analysis revealed that role takers tended to vary their contributions more than non-role takers by proposing more problems, synthesizing the discourse, reflecting on the process and organization of activity. They also assumed appropriate responsibilities for their role: the Skeptic prioritizes questioning of content, the Synthesizer emphasizes synthesizing of content, and the Social Tutor privileges maintaining of relationships. Implications of designing role taking to foster knowledge building in university blended courses are discussed.

Towards a Knowledge Building Community: From Guided to Self-Organized Inquiry

Over four academic years a design experiment was conducted involving four online university courses with the goal of shifting from Guided to Self-Organized Inquiry to foster Knowledge Building communities in the classroom. Quantitative analyses focused on notes contributed to collective knowledge spaces, as well as reading and building-on notes of others. All team members, including teachers, contributed at high levels. Students tended to produce more notes in the guided-inquiry approach but read more and demonstrated more even distribution of work as part of self-organized inquiry. Qualitative data focused on strategies students reported as new to their school experience. Strategies fell into three categories common to both guided and self-organizing inquiry: elaborating course content for depth of understanding, collaboration in an online environment, and metacognition, with greater reflection on idea development. Distinctive aspects of self-organized inquiry, according to student reports, included going beyond given information, linking new understandings and personal experiences, attention to the collective works of the community, and learning from instructor’s strategies.

Sense of community in online courses and students with disabilities: Development of a questionnaire for university students

The sense of community in online courses may contribute to the success and the satisfaction of all the students and the integration of the students with disabilities. Therefore, a valid scale to assess sense of community must be used. For this purpose, a questionnaire for the evaluation of all the dimensions of the MacMillan and Chavis (1986) sense of community model, the main theoretical reference in the field, is being developed for use with students of university online courses. The usefulness of such a questionnaire for the planning of interventions to promote the feeling of being a member of a group in online courses is discussed.

Metacognitive reflection in online environments and self-study in university courses

The metacognitive processes of critical thinking, regulation and guiding of cognitive mechanisms are fundamental in promoting self-regulated learning, which, in turn, is crucial for academic success. ICT offers significant possibilities for supporting these capacities. We describe two different experiences in which tools for metacognitive reflection have been implemented in online environments in order to sustain self-regulation in university study. In both cases the students participated in online units – one on educational psychology, the other on study methodology – followed by discussions for stimulating metacognitive reflection. In both experiences, the proposed tools promoted advanced epistemic activation and better awareness of personal self-regulation skills in study processes.

Conversational Functions for Knowledge Building: a Study of an Online Course at University

Interactions in online courses have been studied by analyzing Conversational Functions used by participants. Cacciamani, Perrucci Khanlari (2016) developed a coding scheme, named CF4KB, consisting of four Global Conversational Functions (GCF), each articulated in two Specific Conversational Functions (SCF). The aims of the present study were to explore: 1) What are the more frequently SCF used by the participants, both at the beginning and at the end of an online course, and if there are differences between the beginning and the end of the course in terms of SCF used; 2) If there is any specific pattern of SCF used at the beginning and at the end of the course and if there are any persistences in using the same SCF. For these aims, 152 messages posted in Knowledge Forum online environment by 24 university students (19 F and 5 M) were considered. The messages have been segmented into units of meaning and the 1451 resulting segments have been coded by two independent judges who applied the CF4KB. The analysis of frequencies evidenced the more frequently used SCF, at the beginning and the end of the course. Comparing SCF frequencies between the beginning and the end of the course, differences were detected. Results showed also different patterns in the use of the SCF at the beginning and at the end of the course. In addition, the persistence of one SCF was found. Implication of these results for the analysis of the interactions in online courses are discussed.

Development of a scale of Sense of Community in university online courses

ABSTRACT Creating a sense of community in online classes contributes to student retention and to their overall satisfaction with the course itself. This study aimed to develop a scale of sense of community of students attending online university courses. A series of ordinal exploratory factor analyses were conducted on data obtained from 839 students enrolled in Italian universities. Using an item analysis method, we were able to select the 36 most valid items from an original set of 60 items we had previously defined. These items are distributed across three related factors measuring membership, influence, and fulfillment of needs. This factorial structure replicates the McMillan and Chavis’s model of sense of community, upon the basis of which this scale was developed. The three factors presented good ordinal alpha and adequate convergent/divergent validity coefficients. The scale represents an efficient tool for the design, monitoring, and evaluation of online courses.

Role taking and conversational functions in a blended university course

Role taking is an established technique that can foster group participation in online university courses. This paper reports on a blended course in Experimental Pedagogy at Sapienza University in Rome, analyzing how conversational functions and language use differs when students are assigned a role. A total of 143 students (22 males, 121 females) participated in the study. Online messages posted in a Moodle forum were analyzed by two different experts, who used a coding system that distinguishes between global and specific conversational functions. Language analysis was conducted using the software T-Lab. The results reveal differences in the performance of roleplaying and non-roleplaying students, specifically in the employment of conversational functions and the use of pronouns. Implications for future research are discussed.

Can you really build knowledge in an online university course

Analyze a college course online structured along the lines of the Knowledge Building Community and based on a model of constructivist psychology. The subjects involved in learning intentionally take an active role in the construction of meaning through forms of collaboration and negotiation.