Collaborative online learning using e-moderators in a Wiki environment on the quality of writing, engagement, and collaboration among students with different levels of self-regulated learning in Yemen
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Date
2009
Authors
Al-Sharaabi, Waheeb Abdullah
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Abstract
The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of having e-moderators
who provided encouragement, reminders and notices in collaborative learning situations
in an online wiki environment on Quality of Writing (QW), Actual Engagement (AE),
as well as perceptions of effort and ownership among students with different levels of
Self Regulated Learning. A 2 x 2 quasi-experimental factorial design was used in this
study. The independent variable of the study was the two modes of interactivity learning
(1) Wiki environment with e-moderator, and (2) Wiki environment without e-moderator.
The dependent variables were Quality of Writing (QW), Actual Engagement (AE),
levels of Collaboration (CL) via email and wiki inputs, and perceptions of effort and
ownership. The moderating variable was the Self-Regulated Learning (SRL). The
sample consisted of 138 university students majoring in English Literature in Yemen
and participated anonymously in the Wiki groups assigned to them. The students were
classified as high or low SRL students depending on their mean scores on the Motivated
Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) which was administrated before the
treatment. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the collected data.
ANOVA and two-way MANCOVA procedures were used to examine the main
interaction effects between the independent variable and the dependent variables.
The analyses of the wiki scores by method showed that group receiving emoderator
reported higher scores for QW, AE, CL via email, and wiki inputs as
compared to the group without e-moderator and all the differences were significant.
However, analyses by SRL showed that there were no significant differences in terms of
QW and CL via email among high SRL students, while the high and low SRL students
in groups with e-moderator had significantly more AE compared to their peers in groups
without e-moderator. The low SRL students in the group with e-moderators reported
significantly higher wiki inputs than their peers in the group without e-moderators.
However, there was no significant difference in Wiki inputs among the high SRL
students in both treatment groups.
The analyses of survey data by method and SRL showed that there were no
significant differences on perceptions of the effort spent and ownership. The low SRL
students from both groups claimed to have significantly spent more effort compared to
the high SRL students. However, the high SRL students from both groups claimed to
have significantly more ownership of the project compared to the low SRL students.
The findings by SRL were consistent with other studies in literature. The
findings by method found that e-moderation was necessary in obtaining higher scores
for QW, AE, and CL via email and Wiki inputs but as the e-moderation activities
consisted only of prompts and reminders, these findings suggested that simple
pedagogical agents would be sufficient to maintain active participation among members
of a wiki project.
Description
PhD
Keywords
Computer Science , Online learning , Wiki environment , Self-regulated learning