November 14, 2022

Quasi-synchronous discussions: A proposal to measure the effect of Teams on cooperation, belonging, emotion and interactions [149]

As students begin to reconnect after the COVID-19 pandemic, changing student expectations around online engagement seem to be suggesting that new approaches should be adopted. Recent research has found that students who engaged with each other in a discussion task in a synchronous mode were more willing to work together, felt more positive and more like they belonged than students in an asynchronous mode.  We wish to extend these findings by investigating whether Microsoft Teams promotes a quasi-synchronous mode of discussion and has a similar beneficial effect.  The proposed study adopts a mixed-methods approach of quasi-experimental design to address this […]
November 14, 2022

The Interaction Effect of Group Formation and Individual Preparation on Computer Support Collaborative Engineering Design: An Exploratory Study [102]

Collaboration, as one of the most essential skill sets for engineering students, remains challenging for both engineering educators and student engineers. This study explores the role of pedagogical support individual preparation before collaboration on engineering students’ collaborative learning outcome as well as the process. A total of 36 dyads engineering students from a university engineering class participated in the study, divided into 2 group formations: homogeneous group (two similarly experienced student engineers) and heterogeneous group (one experienced student engineer and one less experienced student engineer). All dyads completed two engineering design tasks in two conditions: immediate collaboration (control condition) and […]
November 14, 2022

The Role of WeChat in Building Relationships amongst International Students [139]

In recent decades, there has been an increase in studies on international students’ use of social media in their host countries. However, there has been limited investigation on how these students utilise social media to help them learn and adjust to their new surroundings. The purpose of this study is to find out how one group of Chinese international Students (CIS), utilised WeChat to support their living and study through building relationships amongst each other in New Zealand (NZ). Nine in-depth individual interviews were conducted focusing on critical incidents that these students experienced while studying in NZ. The analysis of […]