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the three communications. On the contrary, to measure the quality of learners’ distributed cognition, they may<br />

consider content of the communication.<br />

Intra-action invokes interaction (From the<br />

upper figure, one student had a question<br />

when he conducted a self-evaluation test.<br />

Then he posted the test item in the<br />

discussion forum)<br />

Lots of interactions were invoked among peers<br />

Figure 5. Illustration of how intra-action invokes or evolves into interaction<br />

Finally, we learned it from this study that the production of intra-action, interaction, and outeraction might be<br />

influenced by technological functions or the features of environment learners were facing. In short, Vpen in this<br />

study mainly supported learners’ intra-action. While the discussion board primarily supported learners’ interaction, it<br />

also supported outeraction. On the contrary, learners usually employed JMSN for their outeraction, but occasionally<br />

for interaction. Or learners might use the message board for outeraction, but sometimes for interaction. Accordingly,<br />

this study summarized what this study learned in Table 6.<br />

Table 6. Research tools–three kinds of communication<br />

Intra-action Interaction Outeraction<br />

Vpen Strong support<br />

Discussion board Strong support Weak support<br />

JMSN Weak support Strong support<br />

Message board Weak support Strong support<br />

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