Title: Arial, 14 pt - School of Business and Economics - Maastricht ...

Second, the formation and perception of group identity was not measured in this
study. In particular as the perceived usefulness of group collaboration at the start of the online
courses among the two cohorts was different, this might have affected the formation and
perception of group identity. If we want to assess whether this factor is increasing
performance it should be measured. Content analysis on the posts in the discussion boards
may provide further indications to solve this issue.
Third, neither content analysis nor social network analysis was conducted on the
discourse. These might reveal evidence about learning and knowledge construction from
online discussions and interaction patterns among individuals within groups. Research for
cohort 1 showed large differences in participation, type of discourse and position within the
social network (Rienties et al., 2008), which we expect to be smaller in cohort 2 due to the
increased possibilities to interact.
Fourth, future research should investigate whether groups using web-
videoconferences are more balanced with respect to the type of discourse and participation. In
addition, to what extent are students overwhelmed by a variety of ICT tools? To what extent
does the requirement to be present during videoconferences hinder the flexibility of learners
to decide when and where to learn? Finally, to what extent does the behaviour of participants
(students and teachers) differ when using web-videoconferences or discussion forums?
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the EU Lifelong Learning programme funding the S.T.E.P.
project and CvB Web-spijkeren grant, which enabled this research project. This publication
reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any
use which may be made of the information contained therein.