Trena M. Paulus

Collaborative and cooperative approaches to online group work: The impact of task type

One purpose of online group projects is to encourage collaborative dialogue for new knowledge construction. During such projects students have a dual objective: learn through constructing new knowledge together while also completing the task. Cooperative approaches to task completion are an alternative to collaborative dialogue. The impact of task type on collaborative versus cooperative approaches to group projects has not been greatly examined in online environments. Transcripts of 10 small groups completing two types of tasks, synthesis or application, in an online graduate course were analyzed using Herring’s computer‐mediated discourse analysis and Pearson’s chi‐square tests to determine (a) whether groups took a collaborative or cooperative approach to task completion when explicitly encouraged to collaborate; and (b) whether the type of task affected the approach used. Overall, groups chose to cooperate more than collaborate, with application task groups taking a significantly more cooperative approach and synthesis task groups a significantly more collaborative approach. Implications for the design of online group tasks are discussed.One purpose of online group projects is to encourage collaborative dialogue for new knowledge construction. During such projects students have a dual objective: learn through constructing new knowledge together while also completing the task. Cooperative approaches to task completion are an alternative to collaborative dialogue. The impact of task type on collaborative versus cooperative approaches to group projects has not been greatly examined in online environments. Transcripts of 10 small groups completing two types of tasks, synthesis or application, in an online graduate course were analyzed using Herring’s computer‐mediated discourse analysis and Pearson’s chi‐square tests to determine (a) whether groups took a collaborative or cooperative approach to task completion when explicitly encouraged to collaborate; and (b) whether the type of task affected the approach used. Overall, groups chose to cooperate more than collaborate, with application task groups taking a significantly more cooperative appr...

CMC Modes for Learning Tasks at a Distance

Which communication mode(s) do experienced distance learners choose as they collaborate on tasks, and what do they talk about in each mode? How do the participants choose modes for various aspects of a task, and which phases of knowledge construction are present? In this study, case study and computer-mediated discourse analysis procedures are used to investigate transcripts and individual reflections of 10 small groups of distance learners. The findings reveal that the discussion forum was used significantly more often for conceptual moves and for later phases of the knowledge construction process. Email was used more for social moves, and chat was use dm ore for later phases of knowledge construction. Implications for providing grou ps with various CMC modes to complete tasks and for advising novice online learners about the affordances of each mode are addressed.

“I Tell You, It’s a Journey, Isn’t It?” Understanding Collaborative Meaning Making in Qualitative Research

While collaboration is common in qualitative inquiry, few studies examine the collaborative process in detail. In our study, we adopt an interpretive, reflexive stance to explore our process as a collaborative qualitative research team. We analyzed transcripts of eight research meetings for aspects and assumptions underlying our collaboration. Three overarching aspects of our process emerged from the analysis: position-taking, meaning making, and producing. We adopt a learning stance in our work together and make meaning through an iterative, dialogic process that foregrounds and backgrounds key elements of the research process. While some scholars have questioned whether truly collaborative research ever occurs among peers, we illustrate through our findings what such a process can look like.

Power distance and group dynamics of an international project team: a case study

Project-based team activities are commonly used in higher education. Teams comprised of members from different national cultures can be faced with unique challenges during the creative process. Hofstedes (1991) cultural dimension of power distance was used to examine one such design teams intra- and inter-group interactions in a graduate-level educational technology course in the United States. This case study analysis utilized data from observations, participant interviews and a questionnaire to determine what impact power distance had on team process. Low power distance was one factor that enabled Team Alpha to avoid potential conflicts, conflicts they were not able to avoid with their partner team. Rather than viewing themselves as a group of four individuals from different cultures, Team Alpha members developed their own culture, one specifically in opposition to that of predominantly American student teams. A power distance stance was one component of this opposition.

Performative acts of autism

Relatively little research has aimed to understand autism from an emic perspective. The majority of studies examining the organization of the talk of individuals with autism presume that autism organizes discourse rather than examine ways in which talk itself constructs the notion of autism. This study explored the meanings of autism performed in and through the talk of the parents of children with autism and their therapists. Drawing from a larger ethnographic study, we report on findings generated from interview data with parents and therapists. Situating this study within a discursive psychology framework, we attend to the ways in which ‘normality’ and ‘abnormality’ are performed, drawing upon critical notions of disability, poststructural understandings of discourse, and conversation analysis. We point to the importance of situating the construction of an ‘ordered’ or ‘disordered’ body in relationship to the exclusionary practices and policies that individuals with autism and those close to them experience daily.

For faculty, by faculty: A case study of learning to teach online

The shortage of nursing faculty and the need for MSN-prepared faculty to have access to doctoral education and remain in their teaching roles has resulted in a growing number of nurse education programs moving online. A better understanding of how best to support faculty during this transition is needed. This case study describes the experiences of faculty at one institution as they participated in a grassroots effort to learn about online teaching. Six themes related to the faculty development experience were identified: 1) plugging in; 2) peer sharing, modeling and community building; 3) multidimensional learning; 4) role-shifting and meta-learning; 5) paradigm shifting; and 6) sustaining momentum. Findings are connected to recommendations related to how best to prepare faculty to ensure that quality nursing education continues.

Approaches to case analyses in synchronous and asynchronous environments

Computer-mediated communication (CMC) tools can be used to integrate time-intensive tasks, such as case study analyses, more easily into formal learning environments. How students talk together online in CMC environments is an area that has not yet been thoroughly investigated. This paper extends findings from a previous study by comparing two groups of preservice teachers analyzing cases in a synchronous and asynchronous environment. A case study and computer-mediated discourse analysis approach was taken to make sense of the discussion transcripts and student reflections. Booth and Hulten’s (2003) taxonomy of learning contributions is used as an analysis framework. Students made more participatory moves to establish presence in asynchronous environments and more interactive moves in synchronous environments. Reflective contributions were made in both environments, with few learning moves made in either. Students participated asymmetrically in both modes. The interplay between types of contributions, affordances of each mode, student preferences and student epistemological beliefs is explored, with implications for the design and analysis of case discussion tasks in CMC environments.

This Course is Helping Us All Arrive at New Viewpoints, Isn't It? Making Meaning Through Dialogue in a Blended Environment

This qualitative study explores how individuals made meaning of their life history experiences while in dialogue with others in an online learning group that was part of a graduate course on adult development. All online discussion forum postings exchanged by the group over the 3-week assignment period were downloaded and analyzed through phenomenological thematic analysis and discourse analysis. Our goal was to better understand both what happened in this online dialogue and how it took place. Four aspects of how the participants made meaning through dialogue emerged: noticing, reinterpreting, theorizing, and questioning assumptions, each with specific speech acts. These findings expand our understandings of how individuals transform meaning through narrative and dialogue. The identification of specific aspects of meaning making and their related speech acts make a contribution to the literature on online dialogue, the power of restorying, critical reflection in public meaning making, and transformative group learning.

The Role of Teacher Questioning in Promoting Dialogic Literary Inquiry in Computer-Mediated Communication.

Abstract This article reports research from an innovative university-secondary school partnership, the Web Pen Pals Project, which pairs preservice English teachers in online chat rooms with local middle school students to talk about young adult literature. The analyses reported here center on the type of dialogue that results during such online conversations. Findings suggest preservice teachers bring traditional classroom discourse expectations to CMC, and strategies that help CMC facilitators synthesize and focus discourse into co-created “group texts” are needed. Based on these findings, implications for educators who use CMC in teacher preparation to facilitate collaborative learning are suggested.

Accountability and public displays of knowing in an undergraduate computer-mediated communication context.

A great deal of research has examined computer-mediated communication discussions in educational environments for evidence of learning. These studies have often been disappointing, with analysts not finding the kinds of ‘quality’ talk that they had hoped for. In this study we draw upon elements of discursive psychology as we oriented to what was happening in the talk from the participants’ perspective in addition to what should be happening from the researcher/instructor perspective. We examine the talk of undergraduate nutrition science students within web logs (blogs), exploring ways in which the students, when asked to make blog posts on their beliefs about and experiences with dietary supplements, display knowing in dynamic and fluid ways. We analyzed 152 blog posts students were asked to make prior to attending the lecture on the topic. Our findings point to how students negotiate and at times resist doing being a knowledgeable student, using disclaimers such as ‘I don’t know’ and script formulations to minimize accountability for their posts. Our findings highlight how students oriented to the blogs as a venue for institutional talk, responding to the required academic task while simultaneously managing their identities as students.