The recent investigation of educational computer support scenarios has shown the importance of some elements implied in the knowledge construction processes that carry out the participants during the activities of teaching and learning online. These studies suggest that the nature and characteristics of factors as the cognitive and metacognitive presence, the patterns of participation from a technological point of view or the teaching presence can enhance effective learning in those environments (Garrison, 2003; Garrison & Anderson, 2003; Kanuka & Anderson, 2004). From these assumptions, the symposium deepens in the knowledge construction processes (both, individual and group) that are produced in situations of teaching and learning in different educational computer support scenarios of Higher Education. 

 

Our purpose is to analyse different processes of knowledge construction within four computer supported learning settings in Higher Education: Knowledge Forum workspace, interactive on-line tutoring system, virtual campus of the Open University of Catalonia, and Moodle platform. The emphasis is in achieving a deeper comprehension of different processes in asynchronous learning environments, particularly processes of self-regulation strategies, cognitive presence, metacognitive presence, patterns and teacher presence. And finally to have evidence on how effective learning is promoted through participation in activities of learning online. 

 

The proposal has an important scientific and educational relevance due to the different and complementary methodological and theoretical approaches to the comprehension of the processes of learning in different educational computer support scenarios. 

Teaching presence was identified by Garrison and Anderson (2003) as a key element, alongside cognitive presence and social presence, in Asynchronous Learning Networks (ALNs). Studies suggest that the way in which participants contribute to teaching presence and are affected by it in online environments is closely related to their degree of participation and to the interactions they establish with the other participants. This study aims to show that participation analysis is a preliminary step that is able to guide the analysis of teaching presence in ALNs, and to contribute elements for understanding and evaluating the characteristics and effects of teaching presence on learning processes. The data analysed correspond to a seminar held in spring 2005 as part of a Doctorate program in Education Psychology. The main corpus of data comprised the log files produced automatically by Knowledge Forum and the participants' posts, transcribed and prepared for later content analysis. The most important results were: the creation and application of a participation analysis model; the identification of typical patterns of participation; the identification of participants whose patterns of participation reveal an important contribution in terms of teaching presence; and finally, the analysis and evaluation of the contributions of these participants from the perspective of teaching presence. The discussion focuses on participation patterns that indicate a high level of teaching presence and explores the roles of the teacher and the students as sources of teaching presence.

 

Teaching presence was identified by Garrison and Anderson (2003) as a key element, alongside cognitive presence and social presence, in the communities of inquiry in e-learning environments and in Asynchronous Learning Networks (ALNs) in general. For these authors, the emphasis on a learning-centred approach is occasionally confused with the emphasis on a learner-centred approach, which has led to a neglect or an underestimation of the importance of teaching presence. However, teacher presence, defined as "the design, facilitation and direction of cognitive and social processes for the purpose of realizing personally meaningful and educationally worthwhile learning outcomes" (Anderson et al., 2001), plays a decisive role in ALNs. All participants in a community of inquiry or in an ALN may be the source of teaching presence. In this regard, teacher presence is only a part of teaching presence.

 

Studies suggest that the way in which participants contribute to teaching presence and are affected by it in online environments is closely related to their degree of participation and to the interactions they establish with the other participants. In the context of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning –CSCL–, Lipponen et al. (2003) suggest that participation in these environments may be low. From the perspective of social network analysis, Veldhuis-Diermanse (2002) propose studying participation through the number of notes written and read by the participants and calculating the density of interaction as an indicator of their level of participation. From this same theoretical and methodological perspective, other authors have focused on collaborative networks or on the relation between the centrality values for each participant and the success of the contributions made (Cho, Stefanone & Gay, 2002; Haythornthwaite, 2002; Aviv et al. 2003).

 

 

 

This study aims a) to show that participation analysis is a preliminary step that is able to guide the analysis of teaching presence in ALNs, and b) to contribute elements for understanding and evaluating the characteristics and effects of teaching presence on learning processes. In addition, since these two analyses are based on the perspectives of the social network analysis and content analysis respectively, the study also aims to explore the advantages deriving from the joint application of the two methodological approaches.

 

The data analysed correspond to a seminar held in spring 2005 as part of the Interuniversity Doctorate program in Education Psychology, taught jointly by several Catalan universities. The participants were 16 students and 1 teacher from the program. The seminar took the form of an online conversation forum, developed with the help of Knowledge Forum, in which N. Mercer’s book Words & Minds (2000) was discussed. The forum, moderated by the teacher, lasted five weeks and was preceded by two work sessions in which the researchers described the seminar and introduced students to the Knowledge Forum workspace. At the end of the five-week period, there was a session in which the process was summarized and evaluated.

 

The main corpus of data comprised the log files produced automatically by Knowledge Forum and the participants' posts, transcribed and prepared for later analysis with the aid of the ATLAS.ti software. We also used information obtained in two interviews at the start and end of the project, and from the self-reports produced by the teacher and the students during the course of the forum.

 

 

The most important results were:

 

(i) the creation of a participation analysis model that includes a set of indicators and indices for individuals and groups.

 

(ii) the application of the model to the data from the forum under study.

 

(iii) the identification of typical patterns of participation in a conversation forum.

 

(iv) the identification of participants whose patterns of participation reveal an important contribution in terms of teaching presence.

 

(v) the analysis and evaluation of teaching presence, through the application of the categories of content analysis proposed by Garrison and Anderson (2003), to the contributions of the participants identified in point (iv).

 

The discussion focuses on participation patterns that indicate a high level of teaching presence, comparison of the participation patterns of the teacher and the students, and exploration of the roles of the teacher and the students as sources of teaching presence.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Veldhuis-Diermanse, A. E. (2002). CSCLearning? Participation, learning activities and knowledge construction in computer-supported collaborative learning in higher education. Unpublished PhD thesis, WageningenUniversity, The Netherlands.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are plenty of results and interest shown in presence studies with regard to social, cognitive and teaching presence as motors for online community of enquiry learning. Nevertheless, little attention is paid to the regulatory aspects of learning. With this background and these studies in mind, our paper proposes to extend the cognitive presence dimension in terms of the metacognitive aspects that are at the heart of deep learning and high-level skills development. 

 

Our proposal is based on three types of regulatory process (depending on the person providing the reflective elements and monitoring procedures with regard to their own learning in terms of awareness and self-improvement); ie, distinguishing between self-regulation, mutual regulation and hetero-regulation. These types of regulation are analysed in terms of two levels of analysis: personal and collective level.

 

A specific protocol was applied for dimensions of metacognition, based on both the theory developed from the most relevant contributions and data collected previously in similar scenarios. Four online learning activities (forum, debate, collaborative and individual work) at a wholly online university were selected for analysis, due to their common use in these kinds of learning environments for assignments and assessment activities.

 

The main categories for metacognitive presence in online environments are: 1. Design of study plans; 2. Reflective application of study plans, and 3. Monitoring. These categories are analysed from the personal and collective perspective as mentioned above. Each category has different indicators to meet the specific metacognitive profile of each activity. 

 

The results point to particular trends for each learning and teaching activity selected, according to each type of regulation. Likewise, the types of regulation complement each other in terms of the degree and quality of presence at the personal and collective levels. Other interesting results regarding specific metacognitive indicators and relationships are also discussed.    

Over recent years, a subject framework has been built up regarding social, cognitive and teaching presence in online communities of enquiry which has had a great effect on the field of educational research, leading to an important number of renowned research projects and publications (Garrison & Anderson, 2004; Rourke et al. 2004; Henninger & Viswanathan, 2004; Swan & Shih, 2006). We have carried out an exhaustive review of these works, and the analysis dimensions and categories that they propose, in particular; as well as a preliminary application thereof in online teaching and learning environments. Both activities provided precise information on the potentialities of this paradigm and, likewise, showed us the weak points that are catalysts for future research. Amongst these weak points, we felt that exploring cognitive presence further was of interest, in terms of the development of “metacognitive presence” which introduces basic regulatory aspects seen in online teaching and learning processes.

 

The proposal was to carry out further investigation into metacognitive aspects within the framework of the recent research which had recovered the basic premises of classical cognitive presence (Anderson et al., 2001; Garrison, 2003; Kanuka & Anderson, 2004) as the centre of the different types of presence (teaching and social). To do so, the research involved the production and application of a protocol to widen the already existing cognitive presence, complementing it with metacognitive presence. Basically and general speaking, the proposal involved three dimensions: 1. Individual and collective generation of a study plan; 2. Individual and mutual regulatory application of the study plan; 3. Individuals and groups benefiting from corrections/indications. Each dimension is divided into at least four sub-dimensions, for which quantitative and qualitative indices are calculated and presented.

 

These sub-dimensions include (Anderson, 2001; Garrison, 2001; Picciano, 2002):

1. With regard to the “plan generation” dimension: re-definition of objectives, identification of prior knowledge, recognition of available resources, conscious selection of the resolution process and clearly argued explanation of the study plan.

2. “Regulatory application of the plan” dimension: awareness of coherency between planning and development, recognition of correct/incorrect aspects and their causes, and explicitation of the review and improvement processes.

3. “Benefiting from corrections/indications” dimension: reflective reference to the final achievement, explicitation of the process to incorporate corrections and awareness of global improvement. 

 

The protocol, which contains a total of 16 sub-dimensions with their respective indices, has been applied exhaustively to four types of prototypal online teaching and learning activity (individual work, group work, debate, forum) in the context of a wholly virtual university. A number of subjects were selected from the Educational Psychology degree, which provided a total sample of 43 students generating approximately one thousand emails over the month and a half that the different learning activities lasted.

 

The three types of regulation are analysed in terms of two levels of analysis: personal (the study plan and its development to complete the learning activity is the work of a single student) and collective (the study plan and its development is the work of a group of students) (Boekaerts, 1999). In each of the three types, the analysis initially looks at the person contributing the regulatory elements, distinguishing between: self-regulation (regulation carried out by the student themselves), mutual regulation (regulation among students) and hetero-regulation (regulation by the teacher).

 

The Atlas.ti program has been used to analyse the data collected. The emails are codified in terms of the contributions to exchanges between teachers and students in the different areas of the virtual classrooms. An interjudge agreement procedure was used to apply categories in the communication exchanges, identifying fragments of written discourse in electronic media corresponding to the sub-dimensions mentioned above.

 

In general terms, the results show particular approaches for each type of activity and level analysed on the same technological platform, which highlights the importance of instructions in relation to the technology. The results of the online asynchronous teaching and learning process are presented in relation to certain metacognitive profiles; characterised by their forming patterns and combinations of different sub-dimensions, which represent results in themselves, as they show regulatory trends that depend on the variables in play. These profiles are seen to meet regulatory levels driven by the students themselves, by other students and by the teacher. The level to which the different types of regulation (self, mutual, hetero) are complementary in relation to the level of metacognitive presence is under study for each activity; given that it would seem that if there is a high level of metacognitive presence with self-regulatory characteristics (driven by the students themselves), the other levels of metacognitive presence (driven by other students or the teacher) are seen to be lower, and the same is true if there is a high level of hetero-regulation (by the teacher) in a type of activity, which seems to inhibit the other types of regulation.

 

Anderson, T. et al. (2001). Assessing teaching presence in a computer conferencing environment. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Network, 5, 2.

 

Broekaerts, M. (1999). Self-regulated learning: where we are today. International Journal of Educational Research, 31, 445-457.

 

Garrison, D.R, Anderson, T. & Archer, W. (2001). Critical Thinking and Computer Conferencing: A Model and Tool to Assess Cognitive Presence.

 

Garrison, D.R. (2003). Cognitive presence for effective asynchronous online learning: The role of reflective inquiry, self-direction and metacognition. In J. Bourne & J. C. Moore (Eds.). Elements of quality online education: Practice and direction. Needham, MA: The Sloan Consortium. (Volume 4)

 

Kanuka, H & Garrison, D.R. (2004). Cognitive presence in online learning. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 15, 2, 30-49.

 

Henninger, M. & Viswanathan, V. (2004). Social presence in online tutoring.

 

Picciano, A.G. (2002). Beyond student perceptions: Issues of interaction, presence and performance in online course. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Network, 6, 1, 21-41.

 

Rourke, L. et al. (2004). Assessing social presence in asynchronous text-based computer conferencing. Journal of distance education, 14, 2, 1-17.

 

Swan, K & Shih, L.F. (2006). On the nature and development of social presence in online course discussions. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks.

The aim of this study is to describe and analyse the processes of the individual and social construction of knowledge, as reflected in the cognitive presence in participants’ contributions, in a text-based asynchronous learning environment. From a socioconstructivist perspective of teaching and learning, the analysis focused on the relationships among cognitive level of posts submitted by participants, the degree of learning of the contents, and sociocognitive level of the discussion (Gunawardena et al, 1997; Jarvela & Hakkinen, 2000; Garrison, 2003). We have analyzed the contributions posted by the participants (both the teacher and her 17 students) in a debate forum on “homogeneous groups as a marker of attention to diversity” over a 3-week period. The debate forum was a part of a broader Moodle course on “Educational Psychology”. The most interesting results point out several types and levels of cognitive presence, depending on (1) the cognitive level of the participants’ individual posts, the functional and contextualized use of the contents that these posts show, and the evolution of these two variables; and (2) the profundity and progress of the sociocognitive process of the discussion. Furthermore, the results show that effective learning depends on the congruencies and discrepancies that are established between the different levels of cognitive presence and its evolution. Taken together, the results of this study improve our understanding of both the characteristics and the evolution of the processes of individual and social construction of knowledge in online discussions, and shows that the analysis of cognitive presence is a valid procedure for understanding the quality of learning in a text-based asynchronous learning environment.

The aim of this study is to describe and analyse the processes of the individual and social construction of knowledge, as reflected in the cognitive presence in participants’ contributions in a text-based asynchronous learning environment. From a socioconstructivist perspective, to understand the learning processes in online discussions we should consider the level of cognitive complexity attained by the participants, the degree of functional use of the contents learnt, and the sociocognitive context that the participants construct as the online discussion develops (Gunawardena et al, 1997; Jarvela & Hakkinen, 2000; Garrison, 2003).

 

With these theoretical assumptions in mind, this study seeks to answer the following questions:

(1) How does the level of cognitive complexity attained by the participants in their individual and group contributions to the online discussion develop? What is the relation between this evolution and the progress in participants’ learning?

(2) What relations are established between the level of cognitive complexity, the degree of learning demonstrated, and the process of sociocognitive construction of collective knowledge in online discussions? How do these relations evolve over time?

 

To study these processes, we performed a qualitative and quantitative analysis of an online discussion activity in a university course.

Participants were a teacher and her 17 students on a university course in education psychology. The teacher had wide experience in leading online discussions, but the students had not participated previously in educational situations of this kind.

We collected the set of the contributions posted by the participants (both the teacher and the students) in a debate forum on “homogeneous groups as a marker of attention to diversity” over a 3-week period. The activity was a part of a teaching module on the subject of the “inclusive school”, individual difference, and attention to diversity. The students had to submit at least two posts per week in the 3-week period, providing arguments either in favour or against organizing homogeneous groups in the classroom. The format used was the general forum in the Moodle virtual platform.

We determined participants’ cognitive presence and its evolution over the course of the online discussion, using the following dimensions and units of analysis to understand effective learning:

(1) The cognitive level of posts submitted by participants (both individually and as a group) over the course of the discussion. We established a categorization that identified successive levels of cognitive complexity. The units of analysis are the topics (or thematic units) raised in the posts.

(2) The degree of learning of the module’s contents, reflected in the posts submitted by participants (both individually and as a group) over the course of the discussion. In this case, we established a categorization that identified successive levels of the functional use of the contents learnt. The units of analysis were, once again, the topics (or thematic units) raised in the posts.

(3) The sociocognitive level of the posts submitted by participants (both individually and as a group) over the course of the discussion. We established a categorization that identified successive levels of the process of joint construction of knowledge in an online conversation. The units of analysis were the individual posts that formed part of a chain of conversationally contingent posts. The ATLAS/ti software program was used for the qualitative coding, sorting and reduction of the transcribed data.

We identified several types and levels of cognitive presence, depending on (1) the cognitive quality of the participants’ individual posts, the functional and contextualized use of the contents that these posts show, and the evolution of these two variables; and (2) the profundity and progress of the sociocognitive process of the discussion. Furthermore, the results show that effective learning depends on the congruencies and discrepancies that are established between the different levels of cognitive presence and its evolution. The cognitive quality of the participants’ individual posts was not always related to the functional use of contents learnt. Nor did the level of profundity attained in the process of joint discussion always determine a high cognitive level, or a functional and contextualized use of the contents learnt.

 

Taken together, the results of this study improve our understanding of both the characteristics and the evolution of the processes of individual and social construction of knowledge in online discussions, and shows that the analysis of cognitive presence is a valid procedure for understanding the quality of learning in a text-based asynchronous learning environment. This analysis requires an interrelated study of a) the processes of participants’ intellectual reflection, b) the functional use of the contents learnt, and c) the construction of the context of sociocognitive discussion over time. The results suggest that to understand the processes of learning in online discussions we must study not only the cognitive presence that shapes the nucleus of the interaction, but also the social presence and the teaching presence as elements that may contribute to enhancing the quality of learning.

 

Garrison, D. R. (2003). Cognitive presence for effective asynchronous online learning: The role of reflective inquiry, self-direction and metacognition. En J. Bourne & J. C. Moore (Eds.). Elements of quality online education: Practice and direction. Needham, MA: The Sloan Consortium.

 

Gunawardena, C. N., Lowe, C. A., & Anderson, T. (1997). Analysis of a global online debate and the development of an interaction analysis model for examining social construction of knowledge in computer conferencing. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 17, 397–431.

 

Järvelä, S., & Häkkinen, P. (2002). Web-based cases in teaching and learning: The quality of discussions and a stage of perspective taking in asynchronous communication. Interactive Learning Environments, 10, 1–22.