Computer-Supported Collaborative Knowledge Building and Peer Assessment in an Online Context

Author(s):

Kwok-Wing Lai(presenting / submitting)Ann Trewern

Conference:

ECER 2012

Network:

16. ICT in Education and Training

Format:

Paper

Session Information

16 SES 05 B, Computer-supported Collaborative Learning

Parallel Paper Session

Time:

2012-09-19

11:00-12:30

Room:

FCT - Aula 13

Chair:

Karl Steffens

Contribution

Context

This paper documents a study evaluating an online postgraduate course in which the students were responsible to develop, build-on, and critique ideas in a community of inquiry using the knowledge building approach. As defined by Scaramalia & Bereiter (2003), the goal of knowledge building is “the production and continual improvement of ideas of value to a community” (p. 1370) and the role of the teacher in such a community is to guide learners to “engage in extended questioning and explanation-driven inquiry” (So, Seah, & Toh-Heng, 2010, p. 480). Knowledge Forum, a Web-based networking software was used in this learning community to support knowledge building. Students in this computer-supported collaborative environment also served as reviewers and assessors of each other’s work. The role of the course instructors has changed from being a knowledge provider to a knowledge building facilitator.

This 10-month postgraduate course was offered by a research-intensive university in New Zealand in 2011. The course was designed for experienced teachers to enhance their professional learning in the use of technologies in their schools. Students in this course were responsible to develop ideas around major themes that included eTeaching, eMentoring, and eLeadership as a group in the first semester and then implement the ideas as technology related projects in their classes in the second semester.

Research questions

The following research questions were asked:

Has a knowledge building community been successfully developed in this course?
What were the effects of the knowledge building process mediated by Knowledge Forum on students’ learning and knowledge building outcomes in an online context?
Has the peer review and assessment process been conducive to learning and knowledge building in an online context?
What were the roles of students and instructors in this course?

Participants

Twelve teachers participated in this study.

Method

A mixed methods design was adopted in this study. 1. Content analysis – Students were engaged in a ten-week online knowledge building discussion in the first half of 2011. All the contributions of the discussion were collected and analysed. Rating scales developed by Lee et al. (2006), Zhang et al. (2007), and Dumsa et al. (2010) were adapted to rate the students’ depth of understanding of domain knowledge. 2. Knowledge building reflective portfolio – Each student was asked to develop a knowledge building portfolio to reflect on the ideas developed in the discussions, and how these ideas have supported the development of his/her own classroom-based projects. A rating scale was developed to assess the depth of ideas development in these portfolios. 3. Peer review and assessment – Each draft of the knowledge building reflective portfolio was reviewed by three students before final submission. Formative feedback was provided by the reviewers. The final portfolio submitted after revision was summatively assessed by the same reviewers. The reviewers’ feedback reports were analysed to evaluate the nature of the feedback and how feedback was used to support revision and knowledge building. 4. Interviews – Seven students were interviewed to evaluate their learning and knowledge building experiences.

Expected Outcomes

Findings Preliminary analysis shows that students interacted very actively in the learning community and new ideas were generated. More in-depth analyses of the data will be conducted in early 2012 to provide answers to the research questions. Significance This study has combined the pedagogical approaches of knowledge building (Scaramalia & Bereiter, 2003) and peer feedback (Hattie & Timperley, 2007; Lai, 2011) in designing an online postgraduate course. It has extended the knowledge building approach by implementing it in an online learning environment, and integrated it with peer review and assessment in the knowledge building process. This pedagogic approach has international relevance and significance in distance teaching and learning, and in professional development of teachers.

References

References Damsa, C., Kirschner, P., Andriessen, J., Erkens, G., & Sins, P. (2010). Shared epistemic agency: An empirical study of an emergent construct. The Journal of Learning Sciences, 19, 143-186. Hattie, J., & Timperley, H. (2007). The power of feedback. Review of Educational Research, 77(1), 81-112. Lai, K-W. (2011). Using collaborative peer feedback and supervision to support doctoral research at a distance. In G. Williams, P. Statham, N. Brown & B. Cleland (Eds.). Changing demands, changing directions. Proceedings ASCILITE Hobart 2011 (pp. 747-757). Lee, E, Y, C., Chan,C.K.K., & van Aalst, J. (2006). Students assessing their own collaborative knowledge building. Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning, 1, 57–87. Scardamalia, M. & Bereiter, C. (2003). Knowledge building. In J. W. Guthrie (Ed.). Encyclopaedia of education (pp. 1370-1373). New York: Macmillan Reference. So, H-J., Seah, L., & Toh-Heng, H. (2010). Designing collaborative knowledge building environments accessible to all learners: Impacts and design challenge. Computers & Education, 54, 479-490. Zhang, J., Scardamalia, M., Lamon, M., Messina,R., & Reeve R. (2007). Socio-cognitive dynamics of knowledge building in the work of 9 and 10 year olds. Educational Technology Research and Development, 55,117–145.

Author Information

Kwok-Wing Lai (presenting / submitting)

University of Otago

College of Education

Dunedin

Ann Trewern

University of Otago, New Zealand

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