The role of learning assignments' characteristics in promoting online collaborative dialogs

This study aims to explore whether different learning assignments by their defining characteristics (e.g., the demand for either analysis or reflection, the explicit or implicit demand for discussion) foster the evolvement of collaborative dialogs in asynchronous learning discussion groups. Three research questions were addressed: (1) Does the type of assignment-analytic versus reflective-affect the intensity of collaborative participation in the discussion? (2) Does the level of explicitness of the requirement to collaborate-explicit versus implicit-affect the intensity of collaborative participation in the discussion? (3) Does the type of assignment affect collaborative interaction as regards to the content and social dimensions of the dialog? Participants were 16 students in an online hybrid course in which the ratio of face-to-face:online activities was 1:3. Main results indicate that: more collaborative performance took place in analytical than in reflective assignments; explicit request for collaboration is more needed in reflective than in analytical assignments; more collaborative performance was observed regarding to content rather than to social related issues. Detailed within and between assignment sub-types analyses are presented in the paper.