An empirical study on the effect of group awareness in CSCL environments

The online learning practice has already demonstrated that the quality of interaction and motivation in collaborative learning is not as good as expected, due to the loneliness and burnout feeling spawned by inadequate learning status information about others. This study proposed a model on group awareness to feedback information of group learning status with charts or diagrams, including the cognitive awareness, social awareness and behavioural awareness, so as to support the self-regulated learning and group interaction. On the platform developed for teaching of computer science, an experiment that lasted for one semester was conducted on three classes (one experimental class and two control classes). And students’ ability of learning strategies and self-efficacy were measured before and after the experiment. The group awareness tool embedded in the platform was applied to generate status about the interaction in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning. The data analysis showed that the model had a significant effect on maintaining motivation, reducing the sense of loneliness and improving interaction quality.