Abstracts - Earli

University of St. Gallen/Switzerland. The results of the empirical studies will be reported at thesymposium.Fostering university students’ knowledge construction in asynchronous discussion groups bymeans of the use of knowledge typesTammy Schellens, Department of Education, Ghent University, BelgiumHilde Van Keer, Department of Education, Ghent University, BelgiumBram De Wever, Department of Education, Ghent University, BelgiumMartin Valcke, Department of Education, Ghent University, BelgiumThe present study focuses on the use of a particular kind of scripting, namely the use of knowledgetypes as a possible way to structure university students’ discourse in asynchronous discussiongroups and consequently promote their learning. More specifically, the aim of the study is todetermine how requiring students to label their contributions by means of knowledge types, has animpact on the knowledge construction processes reflected in the discussion. More specifically,students were asked to label each contribution with a category reflecting one of the stages of theprogressive inquiry model. The categories that were provided were "Problem", "My Explanation","Scientific Explanation", "Evaluation of the Process", and "Summary". This script is based on theFLE3 knowledge building environment. The results suggest that the use of knowledge typessignificantly affects the knowledge construction processes. More specifically, it appears thatrequiring students to reflect on the type of message in their contributions stimulates significantlyhigher levels of knowledge construction reflected in students’ messages as compared to a controlgroup engaged in regular asynchronous discussions without requirements with regard to labellingthe knowledge type reflected in one’s contributions.Dynamics of collaboration process during a scripted online course in university settingsRaija Hamalainen, IER, University of Jyväskylä, FinlandMaarit Arvaja, IER, University of Jyväskylä, FinlandPäivi Häkkinen, IER, University of Jyväskylä, FinlandCollaboration scripts can guide the participants in dealing with the learning task, help them tochoose appropriate roles to play as well as to organise and to sequence the various activities theyare supposed to engage in. This study explores how three different types of pedagogical scriptsguided groups’ collaboration processes, how groups’ activity level and types of activities varyduring a scripted university course. This study is a design-based study, in which the participantswere the first-year teacher education students (N=30) studying the pedagogy of education for aperiod of three months. Three different scripts (Case, Grid and Open-problem) were employed tomake learning more efficient. These three scripts formed a "macro-script" for the whole onlinecourse. Process-oriented data sources included material used and produced during the computerbasedactivity; log data on student activities, asynchronous web-based discussions, three differentoutputs of each group and a self-report questionnaire. The analysis involved two levels. First, alldata were verified and students’ activity levels were categorized during each script. The secondlevel of the analysis concentrated on how well the groups proceeded through the different stepsfrom the perspective of collaboration process. According to the findings, scripting enhancedcollaboration and ensured that all groups were able to complete the task. However, despite thescripts the group activities varied during the task and the script could not guarantee "high-level"participation by all students. The activity level of participants varied between the different scriptsboth in terms of the number of active participants and the degree of individual participants’– 375 –