Board 165: Effects of Online Collaborative Learning with Scaffolding in Multiple STEM Courses Based on Results from Three Consecutive-Year Implementation

This paper presents results from analysis of data accumulated from implementation of scaffolding for online collaborative learning in STEM courses through a Learning Management System (LMS) in three consecutive years. Students in a variety of STEM courses were randomized into four-member teams and required to participate in collaborative learning through online discussion boards in LMS. General instructions and different levels of scaffoldings or interventions were provided online via LMS to different teams, which required students to collaboratively learn course contents and solve the assigned problems. Students’ collaborative learning processes and outcomes were measured using self-report questionnaires and Concept Inventory related to course subjects. Two previously published ASEE conference papers have presented details of the proposed scaffolding and implementation procedures for online collaborative learning and reported findings based on data collected from the one-year implementation through group e-mail and LMS respectively. This paper presents results from analysis of data accumulated from implementation of the scaffolding for online collaborative learning through the online LMS – Blackboard in three consecutive years. Results show that students with both social and cognitive scaffolding have the largest knowledge gains and the most engagement in both social and cognitive processes of their collaborative learning, followed by students with only social scaffolding and students with only cognitive scaffolding in terms of building consensus in the social processes, while students without any scaffolding only outperform others in terms of externalization and elicitation of the social processes. With comparable prior learning achievement or disposition, students with scaffolding outperform those without any scaffolding in terms of their knowledge gains through online collaborative learning, indicating the beneficial impact of the scaffolding for online collaborative learning. Nevertheless, it is also found that students with higher prior learning achievement may achieve more desirable learning outcomes even without the implemented scaffolding than those with poor prior learning dispositions with the scaffolding. Finally, further research directions are also discussed. Introduction With the progression of information and digital technology in recent years, Learning Management Systems (LMS) have provided an effective online platform for delivery of educational courses, tracking and reporting students’ learning, and sharing and exchanging information between instructors and students. While students have already started to use computer or mobile devices, particularly smart phones to access online learning materials and communicate with each other, LMS may provide a platform for them to collaboratively learn course topics through online discussion. Collaborative learning has been noted to be a more effective learning mechanism than independent individual learning, and is able to facilitate students to seek and offer explanation and help, exchange, clarify or correct their understanding, and share their views on learning contents from multiple perspectives for constructing knowledge in their learning processes [1,2]. Particularly, the social interaction for learning is the key mechanism of collaborative learning, through which the internal cognitive processes and meta-cognitive processes in learning can be provoked, exposed, and exchanged to facilitate students’ learning [3,4,5]. On the other hand, students also tend to prefer collaborative learning. Koehn et al. conducted a survey revealing that students of civil/construction-engineering were in favor of collaborative learning6. The authors of this paper also surveyed STEM students majoring in engineering, chemistry, mathematics, physics, computer science, which indicated that the students recognized the effectiveness of collaborative learning, and believed that their understanding can be better improved and it was necessary to provide support to facilitate their collaborative learning. Recognizing the importance and effectiveness of collaborative learning, more and more STEM faculty or instructors have utilized this learning mechanism in their teaching practice. For example, Soundarajan et al. adopted Peer Instruction approach to instruct engineering students to perform online collaborative learning, in which students were engaged in deep discussion with their peers and each student was provided with a specific task through e-mail with expectation for improving their students’ technical and conceptual knowledge [7]. Bohorquez and ToftNielsen designed a problem-oriented medical electronics laboratory, where collaborative learning was adopted with the intentions of improving the expertise, self-efficacy and craftsmanship skills of biomedical engineering students. Their implementation yielded satisfactory results and demonstrated the effectiveness of their collaborative learning strategies [8]. Dong and Guo incorporated Collaborative Project-Based Learning (CPBL) into their Computer Networking course for undergraduates [9]. They indicated that the implementation of CPBL strategy was effective in facilitating their students’ understanding of key concepts and improving their hands-on skills. Their students’ feedback revealed that most of them were in favor of this collaborative learning method for enhancing their interest in computer networking fields. In general, efforts of these faculty members mainly focused on the course requirements and assignments when implementing collaborative learning strategy in their courses. Nevertheless, their implementation usually did not provide systematical support or scaffolding to facilitate their students’ collaborative learning processes. This may minimize the effectiveness of collaborative learning among students, because students may lack adequate the social and cognitive skills that are necessary for performing effective collaborative learning, such as the way for initiating discussion, exchanging ideas, sharing perspectives with their peers, offering explanations, and discussing at a high-level [10]. Conversely, research development in cognitive science has provided theoretical and methodological basis for effectively supporting and facilitating collaborative learning among students. Hron et al had develop the scripts for supporting students’ collaborative learning and believed that the scripts would impact the collaborative learning positively when the scripts could “specify, sequence, and assign roles or activities to collaborative learners” [5,11,12,13,14]. King argued “the guided peer questioning could prompt the high-level interaction, including activities such as asking thought-provoking questions and integrating new knowledge”[15]. Therefore, King [16], Swan and Pead [17] had adopted the scaffolding through guided peer questioning prompts for supporting students’ collaborative learning in their research. Empirical studies18 have demonstrated the effectiveness of such scaffolding for improving students’ knowledge gains. Weiland’s research findings revealed that both learning processes and learning outcomes could be influenced by different levels of scaffolding [5]. However, most of aforementioned research studies were conducted with K-12 students or liberal arts college students under experimental condition. The effects of scaffolding cyberenabled collaborative learning have not been fully examined in authentic STEM education settings, particularly for African American students. The authors of this paper have adopted and developed the scaffolding for online collaborative learning based on the findings from cognitive research [5,11,12,13,14] and implemented it in multiple STEM learning settings at authors’ institution, one of the HBCUs. In the authors’ two previously published ASEE conference papers, the implementation of an instructional framework for scaffolding cyber-enabled collaborative learning in STEM courses was reported in details along with its impacts on students’ learning revealed based on the data collected at that time [19, 20]. While the previously reported outcomes of students’ collaborative learning were based on data collected from implementation of the presented scaffolding for online collaborative learning through group e-mails in one year and through online LMS in the other year respectively, this paper presents results from analysis of data accumulated from implementation of the scaffolding for online collaborative learning in STEM courses through the online LMS – Blackboard in three consecutive years. The newly reported results may demonstrate the more general effect of scaffolding for online collaborative learning based on a larger scale in terms of numbers of student participant than that reported previously. Methodology In three consecutive years from 2014 to 2016, four participating STEM instructors had repeatedly adopted the proposed scaffolding for online collaborative learning through the online LMS – Blackboard in their courses, including one chemistry course: CHEM 141General Chemistry; one computer course: CSC 325-Operating Systems; one mathematics course: MATH 241Calculus; and one engineering course: CIV 320-Structural Analysis, and provided data on students’ collaborative learning processes and outcomes obtained from self-report questionnaires and concept inventory. In those STEM courses, students were randomly assigned into 4-member teams, and then those teams were randomly assigned into four different groups. They were assigned with relevant homework and projects and required to work collaboratively with their team members and engage in online discussions for completing assignments with their peers. Guidelines for facilitating collaborative learning processes or scaffolding were adopted and developed based on research findings from cognitive science [5,11,12,13,14], including the s