Influence of participation, facilitator styles, and metacognitive reflection on knowledge building in online university courses

Abstract

Understanding how to foster knowledge building in online and blended learning environments is a key for computer-supported collaborative learning research. Knowledge building is a deeply constructivist pedagogy and kind of inquiry learning focused on theory building. A strong indicator of engagement in knowledge building activity is the socio-cognitive dynamic of epistemic agency, in which students exercise a higher level of agency for setting forth their ideas and negotiating fit with those of others rather than relying on their teacher. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of (a) levels of participation, (b) facilitator styles and (c) metacognitive reflection on knowledge building in two blended, postsecondary education contexts. A study of a total of 67 undergraduate students suggest that high levels of participation, a supportive facilitator style, and ample opportunities for metacognitive reflection on the students' own participation strategies are most conducive for fostering epistemic agency for knowledge building. Implications of these results for research and instructional design of online courses are discussed. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Students' engagement characteristics predict success and completion of online courses

“…The learners are exposed to ideas, opinions, and comments from classmate. They contribute from their personal information as well as acquire knowledge created in the forums (Cacciamani, Cesareni, Martini, Ferrini, & Fujita, 2012). Moreover, instructor-student communication contains feedback regarding students' activities and performance, and can be used to answer questions regarding subject matter (Sebastianelli, Swift, & Tamimi, 2015).…”

“Think of it as a Challenge”: Problematizing Pedagogical Strategies for Progression When Assessing Web-based University Courses

“…However, with a clearer focus on feedback in these group activities, the assignments could support the students' learning processes in a socio--cultural context. This idea is supported by Cacciamani, Cesareni, Martini, Ferrini and Fujita (2012), who show that participation, metacognitive reflection, and a teaching style aimed at supporting participation promote the students' learning.…”

Tracing knowledge co-evolution in a realistic course setting: A wiki-based field experiment

“…In particular, there is great potential to employ social media for collaborative knowledge building (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1994), a form of learning that stresses the active, social and constructive character of learning (Cacciamani, Cesareni, Martini, Ferrini, & Fujita, 2012;Larusson & Alterman, 2009). Specifically, wikis have been popular means to apply novel teaching methods in classrooms (e.g., Barry, 2012;Biasutti, 2011;Everett, 2011;Heafner & Friedman, 2008;Ioannou, 2011;Larusson & Alterman, 2009;Naismith, Lee, & Pilkington, 2011;Pifarré & Kleine Staarman, 2011;Wheeler, Yeomans, & Wheeler, 2008), albeit with mixed success (Cole, 2009).…”