Disengaged students and dialogic learning: the role of CSCL affordances

How Design Science Research Helps Improve Learning Efficiency in Online Conversations

“…From conducting a needs analysis on the pertinent literature, we realized how threads in online discussion boards have the tendency to quickly fade, which leaves little opportunity for students to diagnose and revise their incomplete or incorrect ideas (e.g., Eryilmaz et al, 2015;Jeong & Hmelo-Silver, 2010;Paus et al, 2012;Peters & Hewitt, 2010;Slakmon & Schwarz, 2014). An attention-guidance system can solve this problem by attracting, retaining, and, if necessary, reacquiring students' attention on instructional materials' central principles while simultaneously offering them an open learning environment for choosing topics and expressing ideas.…”

“…The design addresses the problem in asynchronous online discussions where online discussion threads that focus on central concepts from instructional materials have the tendency to quickly fade, which leaves little opportunity for students to diagnose and revise their incomplete or incorrect ideas (e.g., Eryilmaz et al, 2015;Jeong & Hmelo-Silver, 2010;Peters & Hewitt, 2010;Paus et al, 2012;Slakmon & Schwarz, 2014).…”

“…Studies have consistently noted that one major challenge concerns a learner's processing central principles from instructional materials at a shallow level (e.g., Jeong & Hmelo-Silver, 2010;Peters & Hewitt, 2010;Slakmon & Schwarz, 2014). Specifically, from quantitatively analyzing AOD threads, researchers have found that, as the subject matter increases in difficulty, students become less comfortable asking questions that expose their lack of understanding and revising incomplete or incorrect ideas (Eryilmaz, Chiu, Thoms, Mary, & Kim, 2014;Paus, Werner, & Jucks, 2012).…”

Future-looking conversations in CSCL

“…However, most CSCL studies just report on variation as part of their analysis; few studies take variation as a premise and design studies for addressing the problems that low achievers experience. One exception is the study by Slakmon and Schwarz (2014), which directs analytic attention towards disengaged students in how and why they choose to participate in CSCL settings in particular ways.…”

Conceptualizing the intersubjective group

“…A core component of this approach is supporting groups of students to engage in argumentation as a form of intersubjective meaning making. Schwarz and colleagues have previously published studies of CSCL support for argumentation in ijCSCL (Asterhan and Schwarz 2010;Schwarz and De Groot 2007;Schwarz and Glassner 2007;Schwarz et al 2011;Slakmon and Schwarz 2014). Now they situate computer support for argumentation in an innovative dual-interaction space.…”