1 research outputs found
Coordinating Collaborative Chat in Massive Open Online Courses
An earlier study of a collaborative chat intervention in a Massive Open
Online Course (MOOC) identified negative effects on attrition stemming from a
requirement for students to be matched with exactly one partner prior to
beginning the activity. That study raised questions about how to orchestrate a
collaborative chat intervention in a MOOC context in order to provide the
benefit of synchronous social engagement without the coordination difficulties.
In this paper we present a careful analysis of an intervention designed to
overcome coordination difficulties by welcoming students into the chat on a
rolling basis as they arrive rather than requiring them to be matched with a
partner before beginning. The results suggest the most positive impact when
experiencing a chat with exactly one partner rather than more or less. A
qualitative analysis of the chat data reveals differential experiences between
these configurations that suggests a potential explanation for the effect and
raises questions for future research.Comment: 8 page