The role of multi-attributional student diversity in computer-supported collaborative learning

Many online learning contexts are characterized by both high levels of student diversity on socio-demographic attributes (e.g., gender, first language) as well as task-related attributes (e.g., prior online-learning experiences, prior degrees). This longitudinal study investigated the relationships of multi-attributional diversity with CSCL processes and outcomes in a cohort of 1525 distance education freshmen randomly allocated to 343 groups over the course of a nine-week CSCL assignment. Group-level path analyses revealed that, if not explicitly managed, higher multi-attributional socio-demographic diversity was negatively related to the groups' structural integration (computed from digital data). Lower structural integration, in turn, was positively related to lower task related collaboration time among students and, ultimately, a poorer grading of the groups' work by independent tutors. Moderation analyses further indicated that high task-related diversity operated as an amplifier of the negative relationship of high socio-demographic diversity with structural integration pointing to a risk constellation that requires active intervention.