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Article Excerpt
This article describes the conversational interactions of one online learning group whose task was to identify themes of human development from life histories of the group members. The data were analyzed by a research team using the hermeneutic circle, which involves continually looking at parts of the text in light of the meaning of the larger text, returning to the parts and then back again to the larger whole. A climate of engagement emerged from the data analysis as the overarching theme capturing the essence of the participants' online interactions. Four aspects were found to constitute this climate of engagement: engaging in the online environment; engaging in dialogue; engaging as a group; and engaging in the content. A dialogue pattern connected the four aspects. The authors propose a model of engagement that captures the dynamic nature of these participants' interactions and suggest implications for research and practice.
Introduction
Complex issues in our increasingly interdependent world are often addressed more effectively by groups than by individuals alone. In a higher education setting, Burdett (2003) postulates that learning groups provide opportunities for students to negotiate meaning, manipulate ideas, and create their own knowledge--skills that correspond to those needed in the wider society. The focus of this study was the exploration how one group of four graduate students interacted together online as they shared their life history narratives in a course on human development that was conducted in a blended environment. A review of the literature on learning as a social activity, the social aspects of online learning, engagement of learners online, and education in a blended environment provide background for this study.
Review of the Literature
A view of learning as a social activity occurring in a context provides theoretical support for group learning (Bandura, 1977; Vygotsky, 1962; Wenger, 1998). Affirming the thesis that learning is a social activity, McDonald and Gibson (1998) argue that social interaction and interpersonal relationships are a necessary part of learning. Although a considerable body of literature focuses on how groups develop (Corey & Corey, 2002; Phillips 1990; Tuckman, 1965; Westberg & Jason, 1996), surprisingly little research focuses on what is happening as group members interact with one another to complete learning tasks.
Confounding this lack of research to guide groups in traditional classrooms is the burgeoning potential for expanding learning groups through the use of Internet technology. According to Graham (2002), who reviewed the literature on creating effective learning groups in face-to-face and virtual environments, "Three factors for effective group learning emerged from the literature: creating the groups, articulating the learning activities, and facilitating group interactions" (p. 316). He contends that these three factors are equally important in virtual environments, "however, there is also evidence that new skills and norms will be needed for groups to work effectively" (p. 316). To ascertain these new skills and norms, a deeper understanding is needed of how learning groups interact with one another. Without engagement in learning there will be scant opportunity, as Burdett (2003) suggests, for learners to authentically negotiate meaning, manipulate ideas, and create their own knowledge.
Engagement in learning groups, especially online, is a difficult concept to define. Early on, computer-mediated communication (CMC) researchers felt that authentic social relationships would not be possible in text-only online environments since social cues (such as gestures and facial expressions) were lacking (Rice & Love, 1987; Sproull & Kiesler, 1991). Rheingold (1993) and Walther (1992) argued that interpersonal relationships could be formed online, but that they would form in new ways depending on the nature of the medium. Recent research indicates that social relationships do indeed form in CMC environments. In a study of interpersonal dynamics in an educational context, McDonald and Gibson (1998) found that stages of group development were evident in the online interactions they examined. Harrington (1997) determined that students in a computer conference were able to form what she termed a "democratic community" through intense conversations in which they shared deeply held values and examined complex issues from multiple perspectives. Haythornthwaite, Kazmer, and Robins (2000) emphasize the importance of social interaction to reduce feelings of isolation and increase satisfaction with online educational experiences. Pawan, Paulus, Yalcin, and Chang (2003) emphasize the importance of cognitive presence in online environments in addition to social presence. They assume an argumentation model of discourse is the ideal, claiming that overt facilitation, more structure, and attending to the argument development is the key to effective learning online.
Social interaction and cognitive presence in a blended learning environment may be a more complex phenomenon because students engage in both face-to-face and online communication. Blended environments are becoming more prevalent in higher education. In these environments, a common use of learning groups is to accomplish a specific course-related task; yet some researchers have found that when groups focus solely on accomplishing a task, they miss the important social dimension of learning that often leads to knowledge creation (Graham & Misanchuk, 2003). According to Osguthorpe and Graham (2003), the goal of using a blended approach is to "find a harmonious balance between online access to knowledge and face-to-face human interaction" (Osguthorpe & Graham, 2003, p. 228). The function of interaction in the online portion of a course may be shortchanged if it is viewed solely as online access to knowledge, particularly in courses that use collaborative learning groups in the online portion of the course. In these instances, rather than access to knowledge, groups create knowledge. Stahl (2002, 2003a, 2003b), emphasizing the role of group interactions in his social theory of computer-supportive collaborative learning, positions learning not as a knowledge-transmission process but rather a knowledge-creation process, in which knowledge is created in conversation with others. Stahl (2003b) outlines how individual knowing is in essence an interpretation of the meaning that is first made while in communication with others. In this view of learning, students create meaning as they interact with one another, and these shared meanings contribute to new knowledge.
Understanding Online Social Interaction
Conceiving of learning as making meaning in communication with others provides a unique opportunity to explore the everyday experience of how this communication occurs. Analyzing interaction in its context, as Stahl (2003b) suggests, provides evidence of the learning:
The fact that collaborative learning necessarily makes learning visible provides the methodological basis for empirical analysis by researchers. Researchers of collaborative learning are not restricted to indirect evidence of learning (such as pre-test and post-test differences) because they can analyze and interpret the making of meaning as it unfolds in the data at the group level and in individual trajectories of utterances ... (p. 35).
How students interact online can be examined as an indicator of learning in this context. The dialogue that is taking place among the students in asynchronous environments can be observed in 'real-time' as it unfolds in the forums, but these conversations are also persistent--able to be read again and again long after the conversations are over. Transcripts become artifacts of the dialogic meaning-creation process that took place, documenting the process or conversation to which Stahl (2003b) refers. Rather than the traditional qualitative data of interviews, observations, reflective questionnaires, or even focus groups, analysis of the discourse itself provides a view of the meaning-making process as it is taking place. This focus on "real-time" interaction is a notable departure from other forms of qualitative research that rely on a retrospective accounting of experience by participants or observation of participants as they go about their tasks. This form of inquiry captures the experience of engaging online while it is happening.
Since online learning groups in a blended environment are a relatively new phenomenon in higher education, few studies have explored what happens when a small learning group comes together online to complete a project together while in a face-to-face class. Although the use of blended environments is increasing, practitioners can find little guidance from research on how to understand the social interaction that occurs online. This study addresses a notable gap in research and practice because it focuses on the intersection of social interaction, learning, and the online environment. The findings focus on generating a conceptual framework from the data, a framework that can be tested in quantitative studies with larger sample sizes. In addition, the findings may be a springboard for considering social, cultural, and psychological aspects of the experience (Ratner, 1989, 1991).
The goal of this study was to explore how one learning group of four graduate students interacted together online as they shared their life history narratives in a course on human development in a blended learning environment. Discovering a holistic answer to the following research question guided the study: What happens in a learning group as they dialogue online?
METHOD
Interpretivist philosophy provided the theoretical foundation for the qualitative method used to examine the discussions of this online group (Schwandt, 2000). Rather than test a hypothesis or a preconceived idea of what happens...
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