Exploration of Students’ Online Discussion Engagement in Statistics Collaborative Learning

Abstract

Asynchronous Internet-based technology is the most widely used technology for the instructional delivery of both online and hybrid courses. For online courses in particular, students have expressed feeling isolated and undernourished academically and emotionally within online learning communities. To rectify the situation, an increasing number of educators and scholars recognize the importance of implementing collaborative learning to increase interactions among learners, to heighten their engagement in learning events, and to create opportunities for them to provide mutual support. Educators utilize group learning activities for learners in a variety of fields, such as education, arts, and engineering, but such an approach is seldom seen in statistics education. Most statistics students rely primarily on teachers’ demonstrations and explanations when acquiring statistical concepts. Yet, students can also benefit from group work because interactions with peers allow them to explain processes to reach the solutions and therefore enable them to realize different ways of approaching statistical problems. In this study, we implemented an online collaborative activity in a graduate-level Applied Analysis of Variance course. Two sources of data, students’ discussion posts within their group work and their responses to perception surveys, were collected. This research uncovers students’ perceived benefits and challenges of engaging in online asynchronous collaborative learning activities for learning statistics. It also identifies and demonstrates three varying patterns of interactions from students’ online group work: interacting for completing tasks, interacting for exchanging answers, and interacting for co-constructing knowledge.