STUDENT'S PERCEPTIONS OF ONLINE COLLABORATIVE LEARNING

Collaborative learning is widely recognized and valued in face to face learning contexts. Different authors have focused on the advantages of this method as opposed to other rather more traditional proposals and many contrasted experiences have been put into practice under this perspective. Within the field of online training, collaborative learning proposals are more recent, mainly due to the need to adapt technologies to this particular implementation; it has been necessary to overcome an initial individualistic nature towards the new socialized perspective. One of the main concerns when designing online collaborative learning (from here on Computer Supported Collaborative Learning, CSCL), deals with determining the best conditions to assure the learning expected from group members. Therefore, since CSCL is generated through interaction, it seems necessary to develop designs that structure interaction in three levels: the cognitive, the organizational and the social level. This way, it would be possible to equally serve the learning dimension, the organizational aspects that ground the group internal cohesion, and the social aspects intervening in a group exchange process. Based on the CSCL perspective, we have carried out a study analyzing 106 university students' opinions in the context of a Degree in Primary Education and a Degree in Pre-Primary Education at the Centro Superior de Estudios Universitarios La Salle. These students took part in an online collaborative work experience carried out in five subjects. Even though the research combined qualitative and quantitative methods, in the present contribution we only introduce results from the questionnaire that was specifically developed for this study. Regarding its structure, the questionnaire incorporated 139 items arranged in 6 sections, along a one-to-five Likert scale. In particular, we present the data gathered in section 4, referred to the "Assessment and learning results related to Collaborative Learning". Results prove that students consider collaborative work of great relevance and a beneficial learning method. In particular they value collaborative work with regard to the learning outcomes and the improvement of academic performance. Specifically, the highest mean scores have been reached in the items: "Team work has allowed me to build up my knowledge through other peers input" (4.22 mean) and "Collaborative Learning has helped me achieve a good academic performance" (4.10 mean).