Students’ self analysis of contributions to online asynchronous discussions
Elizabeth Murphy (2005)
Australasian Journal of Educational Technology , 21(2), 155-172
Findings support Kanuka and Anderson (1998) p166 ‘construction of knowledge is not an observable activity’ (KRO ? instead - may not always be observable)
Kunuka, H., & Anderson, T. (1998)
Online social interchange, discord, and knowledge construction. Journal of Distance Education, 13(1) http://cade.athabascau.ca/vol13.1/kanuka.html
KRO - ? a way of developing meta skills for knowledge construction
Reflects the competencies required to learn online collaboratively
Method
Provide a set of four activities for students ( mature – education) to self assess in a social contructivist learning context by looking at
1. No. of postings made on a weekly basis and their length. Includes bar chart as a visual representation.
2. Analysis of claims and gounds (evidence), 8 claim types, 6 ground type. Look at number made, and distribution over the modules. Includes bar chart as a visual representation.
3. Reflect on these
Findings - Reflection by the student ( the last activity, qualitative data)
‘by nature relatively quiet ….. even in a group setting’
‘only contribute when something significant to add’
method of contributing – ‘disrupting mindsets’
try to get others to interogate their understanding
‘In trying to advance the discussion and promote knowledge building , I aim to include a personal element in my posting to exemplify metacognitive activity taking place. If other learners witness the occurrence of personal refelection and introspection, they may be inclined to do the same’
‘In trying to avoid repetition among postings, which would detract from reader interest, I attempted to add novel thoughts and ideas to stimulate further discussion’
‘although the contents of these twenty messages may not have directly contributed to the construction of knowledge, they played a role in establishing group dynamicsand infacilitating collaborative learning processes. Even informing the group of my personal situation throughout the last week ( getting married) of the group project was critical in maintaining the level of trust and confidence that had been established within our group’
‘many of my messages contained positive feedback in relation to the group’s efforts, thus contributing to the sense of morale that characterised our group’
‘I argue that the absence of this social ‘human’ element would have hindered the group’s eventual success and detracted from the learning that occurred through completion of the collaborative project’
‘I know there were many postings from other students that stimulated my thinking and that resulted in the reconstruction and reshaping of my own knowledge, yet I did not respond to these postings in the discussion forum’
Conclusion ( of the student)
· Shorten messages
· Read and respond to the messages of others
· See to ongoing participation
· Self analysis has been useful
