Collaborative knowledge construction in Asynchronous Learning Networks (ALN): A review of analytical tools

This paper aims to review the coding schemes designed to study the collaborative knowledge construction process in text-based Asynchronous Learning Networks (ALN). To this end, we selected five lines of research on this topic, which we called: social construction of knowledge, critical thinking skills, knowledge convergence, argumentation-based knowledge construction, and reciprocal understanding and shared knowledge. For each line of research, we identified the underlying analytical models and we focused on: defining the key concepts of the theoretical framework, summarising the dimensions and categories considered, and examining their possibilities and limitations. In the final section, we raise some future challenges on the design and implementation of the coding schemes employed in this knowledge field.