Comparing how students collaborate to learn about the self and relationships in a real-time non-turn-taking online and turn-taking face-to-face environment

A matched study compares collaborative learning about the self and relationships in two different learning environments. One environment is a traditional university classroom in which participants take turns expressing themselves. The other is online, using the LBD eClassroom (c), which allows several participants to express themselves at the same time. The intent was to migrate the content and the process of the course from a traditional face-to-face classroom to an online classroom. By eliminating the constraint of taking turns, a greater quantity of exchanges was shown to be possible in the same amount of time, resulting in a different dynamic to the interactions in the online class. Instead of focusing on interactions between students and the instructor or expert, more interactions occurred among the students. These differences led to a more effective formation of group identity, or polis. The data analysis includes interaction diagrams, GUIDATA (c), and the use of time.