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

Abstract

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.

Notes

* Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling, University of Tennessee, Collaborative Learning Program, A515 Claxton, Complex, Knoxville, TN 37996‐3452, USA. Email: [email protected]

Students were highly encouraged to communicate within the course system since a portion of their grade was based on team process; thus, it is believed that all communication that did take place was captured for analysis.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Trena M. Paulus *

* Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling, University of Tennessee, Collaborative Learning Program, A515 Claxton, Complex, Knoxville, TN 37996‐3452, USA. Email: [email protected]