Hendriks, Veronica and Maor, Dorit (2004) Quality of Students Communicative Strategies Delivered Through Computer-Mediated Communications. Journal of Interactive Learning Research, 15 (1). pp. 5-32. ISSN 1093-023X

Abstract

This article discusses the processes of interaction among learners in higher education using a model of content analysis to examine their social construction of knowledge through computer-mediated communications. We examined students' conference transcripts for evidence that their collaborative communicative acts generated constructions of new knowledge. This study was conducted over a period of 14 weeks, at the end of which students were asked to describe their feelings as learners and discussion leaders as well as providing explanations for their communicative actions. We modeled our analysis on Gunawardena, Lowe, and Anderson's (1997) study. Our results indicated that the volume of student interaction was predominantly in the category of sharing and comparing information, that was significantly higher that the category of constructing knowledge. In our study, we asked what the outcome of student communicative strategies meant with respect to the quality of their learning experience and examined the viability of the model as a content analysis tool in an educational context.

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