Premium
Incidence of group awareness information on students' collaborative learning processes
Author(s) -
Pifarré M.,
Cobos R.,
Argelagós E.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of computer assisted learning
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.583
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1365-2729
pISSN - 0266-4909
DOI - 10.1111/jcal.12043
Subject(s) - metacognition , psychology , perception , task (project management) , collaborative learning , group work , cognition , group (periodic table) , mathematics education , knowledge management , computer science , engineering , organic chemistry , chemistry , systems engineering , neuroscience
This paper studies how the integration of group awareness tools in the knowledge management system called K now C at (Knowledge Catalyser), which promotes collaborative knowledge construction, may both foster the students' perception about the meaningfulness of visualization of group awareness information and promote better collaborative processes as well as enhance better task performance. Forty‐seven university students participated in a research study, where one group of 23 students used K now C at without the awareness console (non‐awareness group); the other 24 students used K now C at with the awareness console (awareness group). Both groups used K now C at during one semester. Data analysis revealed that the awareness group means were higher than those of the non‐awareness group in terms of participation, cognitive and metacognitive learning activities, and task performance. Moreover, students revealed that knowing what, where and how much their classmates were contributing acted as positive feedback by encouraging participation and orienting their own behaviour and their contribution to the collaborative work. In this paper, we claim that the visualization group awareness information in K now C at, a utility allowing students to visualize and track what, where, how much and how often other participants contributed to the K now C at knowledge area, had a positive impact on the students' collaborative behaviour.