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Helga Dorner and Rita Konyha: Exploring Online Collaboration in a Case-Based Learning Situation: Patterns of Interaction, Participant Satisfaction and Group Performance

This study focuses on the relationships between online interactions, perceived satisfaction and group performance within small groups, whose members collaborated in a problem-based learning scenario. We relied on the Community of Inquiry model (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000) to explore the social, cognitive and instructional dimensions of the small-group collaborations; We also investigated how these dimensions relate to participant satisfaction and perceived group performance. Transcripts of interactions among the group members and their facilitators were analysed by two independent coders using content analysis. Satisfaction with the process and group performance were surveyed post hoc. Results revealed a strong correlation between process satisfaction and interactions characterized by manifestations of social presence. Teaching presence was linked to satisfaction with the facilitator and the process. Performance satisfaction correlated with cognitive presence and with interactions aimed at exploration and analysis, in particular. The current study did not find any relationship between perceived group performance and collaborative interactions, thus requiring further exploration. We also discuss the limitations of the study.

MAGYAR PEDAGÓGIA 115. Number 3. 157-181. (2015)

Address for correspondence: Dorner Helga, Közép-európai Egyetem, H–1051 Budapest, Nádor utca 9. Konyha Rita, Független Szervezetfejlesztési Szakértő, H–1051 Budapest, Nádor utca 9.

 
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Magyar Tudományos Akadémia