Using project-based learning as the intercultural ... - CiteSeerX

Using project-based learning as the intercultural collaboration framework for an international distance course Wei-Jane Lin Department of Intelligence Science and Technology, Kyoto University, Japan [email protected] Hsiu-Ping Yueh, Ph.D. Center for Teaching and Learning Development, National Taiwan University, Taiwan [email protected] Yi-Lin Liu Department of Agricultural Extension, National Taiwan University, Taiwan [email protected] Tetsuo Shoji, Ph.D. Academic Center for Computer and Media Studies, Kyoto University, Japan [email protected] Koh Kakusho, Ph.D Academic Center for Computer and Media Studies, Kyoto University, Japan [email protected] Michihiko Minoh, Ph.D. Academic Center for Computer and Media Studies, Kyoto University, Japan [email protected]

Abstract: This paper describes the implementation of using project-based learning in an international distance course to support students’ intercultural collaboration. Sixty-three students with different nationalities, cultures, school traditions and professional disciplines enrolled in an applied course on educational technology, and accomplished project works together. Through the design of the PBL curriculum and implementation with great support and facilitation from instructors and TAs, observation and feedback data were collected to understand the effectiveness of this practice. Results show that students were highly motivated by the PBL curriculum design for its novelty of intercultural collaboration, well-structured presentation practices, and the achievement of team learning with the successful artifacts development. Project-based learning also proved to function well as a sound pedagogy for international distance learning context which mediated the cultural interaction.

Introduction Interaction has long been a critical issue in distance education. In order to enhance the interaction, research efforts have been devoted into at least the following fields: n How to utilize communication media support? n How to implement effective instruction design? n How to engage students in meaningful group learning activities? In order to examine the above problems and solutions under better context, this study implements project-based learning (PBL) approach in an international distance course between two countries with different spoken language and culture. Based on our previous studies, we expect that by assigning students into groups of different cultural background for project-based teamwork will increase students’ motivation and willingness to collaborate; it in consequence will ensure better performance. Distance education has the unique feature of using technologies to deliver instruction and interaction. Project-based learning in international distance education context especially may encounter challenges of technology appropriation as well as cultural diversity. It is important to distance educators to ensure meaningful learning and quality interaction by encouraging intercultural collaborations among learners in PBL teams.

Rationale and Purposes Project-based learning is an instructional strategy that rests on the idea of constructivism, and applies collaborative learning theory in the design of teamwork. It focuses on students being actively engaged in doing various tasks to construct their knowledge and emphasizes on the importance of teamwork and collaboration, and affords many possibilities for transforming classrooms into active learning

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environment (Moursund, 1998; Synteta, 2003). The essence of project-based learning is its student-centeredness, with students as actors and teachers as directors on an authentically decorated stage. Therefore, students’ learning of knowledge did not come directly from the instruction of teachers, but from the project investigation process, or from their experiences of dealing with real-world problems (Solomen, 2003). Project-based learning (PBL) has been widely used in education which is a comprehensive perspective focuses on teaching by engaging students in investigation. Within this framework, students pursue solutions to nontrivial problems by asking and refining questions, debating ideas, making predictions, designing plans and/or experiments, collecting and analyzing data, drawing conclusions, communicating their ideas and findings to others, asking new questions, and creating artifacts. Recently the integration and infusion of web technologies into project-based learning also emerge in the educational practice for its capability of containing multiple media formats and easily accessible resources. Collaborative learning activities, when properly implemented, may significantly affect the quality of learning and the effectiveness of instructional methodologies. Researches supported that students were more motivated in collaborative learning than in competitive or isolated learning experiences (Johnson, Johnson & Smith, 1991; O’Donnell & O’Kelly, 1994; Slavin, 1991; Wang & Kang, 2006). In the project-based learning process, learners not only collaborate in their project investigation, but also work together to design, and decide how to show others what they have learned in the project. Meanwhile, project-based learning let students more likely to take part in learning activities (Meyer, Turner & Spencer, 1997; Poell, Van Der Krogt & Warmerdam, 1998) because projects focus on questions that they perceive as valuable, challenging and realistic, allowed interaction with others and result in authentic products. In our previous studies (Yueh & Chung, 2005; Yueh, Lin, Kakusho & Minoh, 2006) we adopted project-based learning as an instructional strategy in college teaching. In those courses, students were encouraged to work collaborative in groups and are required to complete their project in a web-based environment. Processes and outcomes of students’ works were collected with their feedbacks to the implementation. Results of the serious of studies suggested that PBL is a good strategy to engage students’ learning and the effect is especially significant in the international distance course. Hence, the purpose of this study is to look into how students with different cultures collaborate in PBL teams to achieve effective teamwork in an international distance course, and to explore important factors of successful intercultural collaborative learning.

Method The Context This international distance course was a collaborative effort from three universities. Five faculties from two universities in Taiwan and one university in Japan joined this effort together by co-teaching to share the experience and foster knowledge exchange among participants. Sixty-three students from the three universities enrolled in this course. The class met every week via real time video conferencing system; and English was the official language used in this course. The course was design with a three-stage framework. The first stage focuses on getting students acquainted with the domain knowledge and main learning objectives of the course, beginning with introduction to broad topics of related theories and practical issues, followed by the concept of project-based learning. Students then need to form a group and work in groups, brainstorming for ideas of the project, assign individual responsibility for project work. In order to help students overcome the difficulty making the initial decisions about what to study in a project, several whole-class didactic instructions on the overall topic area of the proposed scale of project works were conducted. The second stage focuses on the projects creation, beginning with facilitating group discussions to decide the subjects of the projects of their interests, then proceeding to an early presentation for groups to share their initial ideas, design and working plan with the whole class to get broader feedbacks. Several highlight speeches about the field works internationally in both academic and business contexts were arranged in this stage to help learners develop their ideas and materials of their project works from these practical and specific perspectives, , exemplary applications and real world experiences. The final stage focuses on the evaluation of the projects. A formal presentation session was conducted for each group to present their final artifacts orally with demonstration. Peer evaluation, instructor evaluation, as well as self evaluation was administered to collect feedbacks at the same time. Corresponding to the framework of course design and students’ project-based learning process, online supports including supplemental contents as learning resources, group forums and blogs as communication tools, and personal blogs as reflective portfolios were also provided to help students on their distant collaborative learning. These online supports were all available and accessible on the course website, students in groups made their decisions on selecting and using these tools based on their group common agreement. Data Collection In order to implement the effective distance instruction, several measures from the administration level to the curriculum and instruction design were carefully taken into consideration. An initial questionnaire was administrated to collect learners’ profile of learning experiences at the beginning of the semester. For every presentation stages, open comments and feedbacks were collected. And at the end of the semester, self-evaluation forms, and course evaluation questionnaires were also administered for evaluation and feedback purposes.

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Selected Result and Discussion Does it motivate intercultural collaboration and learning Results of this study showed that top reasons for students to take this course included interests in distance course (70.8%), the content (56.9%) and the internationality (55.4%). While the novelty of distance learning and international collaboration appeals to most students, they expressed both high expectation and serious concern toward the collaboration with international partners in the initial survey at the beginning of the semester. They were excited about being able to work with foreign students, but are full confident of their language proficiency in the mean time. Especially Japanese students showed relatively low confidence in spoken English, which echoed the previous research (Sakui & Gaies, 1999) and can explain the following roles and actions they took afterward in their group teamwork. Generally students gave high appraisal to the project-based curriculum. When they’re asked to reflect on their learning in this course, highlight speeches (48.8%) as the main carrier of content, and project-based learning experience (32.5%) were both reported as the top two learning events. In the mean time, students recognized the success of the PBL curriculum by giving the average points of 4.13 (on a 5 scale) in the final course evaluation. Following are three observed issues that represent the most salient events impress students most in this case. Intercultural collaboration Collaboration with partners who came from different countries, universities and disciplines provided students with chances to learn various opinions and perspectives regarding the same phenomena, which also help them to broaden their learning in this course. Students are sensitive to the cultural difference of not merely nationalities, but the cultures and traditions each university possess. Especially for those students from CCU (Taiwan), who are the youngest and most inexperienced group of learners in this course may experienced more impacts. Student Ca states: The brainstorming time was amazing, members got together to pour in different thoughts. There were so many brilliant and creative ideas that I’ve never heard of. Some ideas those Japanese students proposed are funny and kind of weird, which against my previous stereotype toward them. Whilst Student Ce notes: Through the presentation you can find the difference between NTU (Taiwan) and our school (CCU). I think those students from NTU are really smart, I should learn from them.

Presentation skills and language improvement Several students reflected that the most significant progresses they’ve gained are from the presentation experiences during their project works. Although many students recoiled themselves from speaking English at the beginning, and felt unconfident of the group presentations of progress reports, most of them actually forged ahead in their communication with both the team members and the whole class. Students reflected the concerns on their own language proficiency and progress, for example, Student D from CCU mentions: For me, making a presentation per se is hard enough, not to mention making it in English. At first, I was surprised that our classmates seemed good at presentations; I was so worried whether I could keep up. But through the project discussion with the group members, I found my potential for English expression could be explored and inspired. Whilst Student K comments: We spent a great time before each presentation. In order to prepare for those progress reports, we had lots of discussions within our group. These are the moments when I felt language is really important, and then I tried hard to keep up with my team members. And Student I reinforces this: At the final presentation, I really had great achievement when I stood up on the stage and gave the presentation to the whole class on behalf of my group.

Highlight speeches regarding topics of students’ project artifacts Through the project works and the supplemental highlight speeches regarding their project topics, students reflected on their learning of the content knowledge, and through the collaboration with partners from the other countries, they formed a broader view of the phenomena of the problem they explored. Being able to accomplish an international project, going through all the processes of discussion, creation and presentation brought students achievements. Student Y from KU (Japan) comments: Instead of normal tests, by participating in a series of presentations, I could experience the real meaning of E-Learning and U-society's communication over the physical distance.

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Students enjoyed the highlight speeches most for the chances to “see” the various real world practices and applications of e-Learning. Student P and Student W from the same group (CCU) reflect: I’ve heard of the idea of virtual reality and augmented reality before, but this is the very first time that I could not only see it but really practice it. AR is really fantastic, after the speech I went to find more information on my own, finally AR becomes our project topic, because of the impressed content. Whilst Student M from KU notes: While it took some of my time away, it was definitely worth it - Now I have a clearer picture of e-Learning, and all the meetings were fun, too.

Implications for Cultural Interaction The international distance course required students to communicate in English, work in groups, share their opinions and reflect on the authentic issues in the classes and on the websites. These learning activities could be viewed as the dominant intercultural interaction, which also represent the course culture, the things in which the culture is embedded. Students were motivated by these dominant intercultural learning activities, which stimulated their awareness of their roles and actions to perform in the class. They were aware and tended to monitor their own performance themselves, with the intention to show and share their learning progresses with others and demonstrated it as a continuous effort. PBL curriculum provides students meaningful contexts and contents with the engaging nature of project tasks, as the Japanese students who benefited most from the group discussions, this kind of combination increased their motivation to master language so as to successfully use it as a tool for completing projects and for further active participation in group teamwork. As for the cultural factors, students from different national cultures worked together following the framework of project-based learning, they were intrinsically motivated by their group dynamics, while they still had the sufficient autonomy on, for example, deciding the project topics, ways of collaboration and interaction as well as the final form of their project take. Communication became important, necessary and meaningful for all members of the same group, which create more opportunities of interaction in the mean time. It is worth noting that the classes have developed an unspoken set of core values naturally that guide both what students do in the learning environment and how they make sense of each other’s actions. Although students first needed to experience the stage of accommodation, once they strode across this point, they perceived the authority of their own learning, and became engaged in active learning without any pushing by instructors or tutors. The reason for that is students got used to the norms of culture they developed collaboratively, and with that they knew what to expect and response in the interaction process so that they can perform naturally even for intercultural exchange activities. The culture students developed made who the students were in this course. It is reflected in how they structured their learning, what content they discussed with each other, and what kind of communication tools they selected to achieve the interaction. From this kind of virtuous cycling process, students also reflected how the generation-old ill-will is dissolved after their improved mutual understanding among the group collaboration. Another cultural phenomenon is about the language. As discussed earlier, to have a course taught in English was one of the key factors drove students to register the course. However, since English is not native language to either students of Japan and Taiwan, it would be a challenge as well for them to speak up and join the discussion in English, let alone all of them had to make a formal presentation in class. Most students reflected that this is their very first presentation in English, which was more challenging than they expected, but they viewed it as a precious learning experience especially they could get appraisals from the classmates at local and distance. One interesting finding from our observation is, rather than assigning group representatives to make the presentation, almost every student gave the presentation while they argued the difficulty of this task earlier. This happened in their writing and communication using forums on the website and their learning blogs. Every student expressed their ideas in English no matter how difficult they thought it would be before actually doing it. The reason for that is they wanted to be understood and to have effective communication with their peers in foreign country. It became a cultural issue and shaped the environment they developed their identities within it.

Conclusion Throughout the implementation of the PBL curriculum in the whole semester, this course has been recognized as a success by students. It is reflected to be quite a novel experiences for students to work with peers from different universities and different countries. They were always encouraged to actively engage in their teamwork and to foster intercultural exchange. It is found that at the end of the semester the project-based learning has shaped a specific course culture in the class including the three universities at distance in two countries.

Acknowledgement The work presented in this paper is supported by NTU-KU distance learning collaboration project. The authors would like to thank Japan Ministry of Education, Cultural, Sports, Science and Technology (CC-society Project) and Taiwan National Science Council (NSC942520-S-002-001; NSC95-2520-S-002-001) for their grants support to this study. The author also would like to thank Dr. Murakami and Dr. Chen for supporting this course.

References Johnson, D.W. & Johnson, F.P. (1991). Joining together: group theory and group skills (4th Ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc. Meyer, D.K., Turner, J.C. & Spencer, C.A. (1997). Challenge in a mathematics classroom: Student’s motivation and strategies in projectbased learning. The Elementary School Journal, 97(5), 591-521.

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Moursund, D. (1998). Project-based learning and assessment: A resource manual for teachers. Arlington, VA: The Arlington Education and Employment Program. O’Donnell & O’Kelly, (1994). Learning from peers: beyond the rhetoric of positive results. Educational Psychology Review, 6(4), 321349. Poell, R. F., Van Der Krogt, F. J., & Warmerdam, J.H.M. (1998). Project-based learning in professional organizations. Adult Education Quarterly, 49 (1), 28. Sakui, K., & Gaies, S.J. (1999). Investigating Japanese learners’ beliefs about language learning. System, 27(4), 473-492. Solomon, G. (2003). Project-Based Learning: a Primer. Technology and Learning, 23(6), 6-25. Synteta, P. (2003). Project-Based e-Learning in higher education: The model and the method, the practice and the portal. Studies in Communication, New Media in Education. 263-269. Wang, M. & Kang, J. (2006). Designing online courses that effectively engage learners from diverse cultural backgrounds. British Journal of Educational Technology, 38(2), 294-311. Yueh, H. & Chung, W. (2005).A study of group communication and interaction in web-based project-based learning, Educational Review, 25, 1-23. Yueh, H., Lin, W., Kakusho, K. & Minoh, M. (2006). Constructing a full-support online project-based learning environment. In Proceedings of World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications 2006, 2912-2917.

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Exploring Group Interaction in Synchronous Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) in an International Distance Course Hsiu-Ping Yueh Department of Agricultural Extension, National Taiwan University Taiwan [email protected] Yi-Lin Liu Department of Agricultural Extension, National Taiwan University Taiwan [email protected] Wei-Jane Lin Department of Intelligence Science and Technology, Kyoto University Japan [email protected] Michihiko Minoh Academic Center for Computer and Media Studies, Kyoto University Japan [email protected]

Abstract: This study was conducted between two leading universities between Taiwan and Japan for investigating the patterns of interaction, supportive behavior preferences and helpfulness of synchronous online discussion in facilitating distance classroom interaction. Findings suggested that differences in focus on the factual elements (type 2A, statements) may distinguish group’s involvement with online network, and each group showed the same preference in providing support (type 4). Besides, students viewed synchronous online discussion as an impressive and helpful learning activity, and showed positive attitude to e-learning. We concluded that synchronous CMC is beneficial to improve interaction and can increase students’ willingness to participate class activity with sound online learning activity design.

Introduction With the advancement and maturation of technology, patterns of communication between instructors and learners or among learners have changed with more networked computers and internet technologies adoptions. Foci of new ways of communication moved from knowledge delivery to collective knowledge construction with social negotiation processes. Computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL) is encouraged in education settings that has various types, such as computer-mediated communication (CMC), computermediated discussion (CMD), computer conferencing (CC), and networked learning (NL). Although they are somehow different in concepts, however, they share the common basic principle that learners would use computers as a medium to exchange messages with each other (Wever, Schellens, Valcke, & Keer, 2006). Social constructivism theory suggests that learners can acquire the most effective learning through process of peer discussion in exchanging opinions, experiences and perceptions. Along with the widely use of internet technology, computer-mediated communication became more and more important in higher education. The main role of networked computers has shifted from providing structured learning materials to facilitate communication among learners (Mason & Bacsich, 1998; Pena-Shaff & Nicholls, 2004). With the great computing, storage, and analysis capability of computers, instructors and researchers can easily track learners’ development, understand how they collaborate with each other to create and sustain purposive interactions, what management methods are adopted by task groups, and how individual connects with others in online learning environment by analyzing online discussion contents (Hara, Bonk, & Angeli, 1998; Walther, 1996). Although there were great amount of researches on asynchronous online communication to explore its advantages, disadvantages and possibilities in education, however, very little was found to investigate the applications of synchronous online discussion. As Jonassen (1999) argued, synchronous online discussion can assist learners to develop skills in socialization, reading, writing, negotiation, and communication, which gives learners a chance to rethink and absorb what they learned. Therefore, it is important for instructors to consider 第 6 頁，共 11 頁

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adopting synchronous CMC to facilitate students’ collaborative learning and knowledge construction as well as to encourage interaction among learners in distance courses.

Rationale and Purposes Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) CMC systems are network-based computer systems which use electronic forms, such as newsgroup, e-mail, computer conferencing system, virtual classroom, internet relay chat, etc., to allow users to share ideas, opinions, comments, and attitudes to specific issues or topics. Many CMC systems use texts as a fundamental communication and dialogue medium since the permanence and explicitness of text can strength writing skills and encourage deliberate articulation of ideas (Pena-Shaff & Nicholls, 2004; Veerman, Andriessen, & Kanselaar, 2000). Group Interactivity Researches have proved collaboration can improve learning effectiveness. By way of deliberately express ideas and opinions, learners can help each other to understand and clarify learning content more deeply, further, co-construct and form productive problems. Therefore, peer interaction plays an important role in collaboration learning (Chan, 2001). However, just placing students in groups and assigning them tasks could never ensure they will successfully display effective collaborative learning behaviors. Soller (2001) found that some peer groups interact naturally, and the others may appear a balance relationship among participation, leadership, understanding, and encouragement. Schrire (2006) proposed that in computer conferencing environment, interaction means the messages respond to each other, and differs from participation means the number or average length of messages post. With computer conferencing, it would allow learners to reflect more and form cognitive process along with the discussions. How would learners interact in group discussions? Fahy (2003) found learners use a great deal of different interpersonal strategies to support each other, such as ask open questions, talk about opinions with each other, invite others to discuss, and use emoticons to express feelings. Hara, Bonk, & Angeli (1998) also found that the discussion contents usually contained emotional expressions, self-introductions, jokes, and greetings which provided social presence messages. However, as Rourke, Anderson, Garrison, & Archer (1999) argued, although interpersonal support behaviors can increase in-depth and meaningful learning in online interaction, but overmuch supportive behavior may also endanger learning outcome. Analysis of Interaction In education, text in CMC possesses dialog and regulation functions as well as the important role of spoken language in face-to-face classroom interaction (Wells, 1996). Text communication not only can foster complicated and in-depth thinking, knowledge construction and learning, but also record all information what learners exchange with each other to reflect their learning process. Besides, transcripts from group members written in conferencing can be used to judge group collaboration and individual contribution (Macdonald, 2003). Therefore, in order to understand students’ learning status, it is possible to analyze their negotiation process and information articulation during online discussion (Veerman, Andriessen, & Kanselaar, 2000). In the past, researchers adopted self-developed tools to analyze transcripts based on different purposes. Jeong (2003) used discussion analysis tool to investigate the patterns of interaction and its influence on critical thinking; Fahy (2003) used transcript analysis tool (TAT) to examine communication styles and network preferences; and Hara, Bonk, & Angeli (1998) used Henri’s (1992) analytic structure to investigate the patterns of interaction and metacognitive skills. Since every study used different analysis tools, it is difficult to repetitively examine the reliability and validity of the developed tools. There are generally three concerns about using this kind of analysis techniques, discriminant capability, reliability, and unit of analysis. Fahy (2001) used TAT as an analysis tool and found that with the increase of experiences and appropriate practices, the inter-rater reliability would increase. Purposes of the Study This study intends to explore how students interact in a synchronous computer conferencing environment in an international distance course. Learners’ interaction patterns and online supportive behavior preferences in

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synchronous CMC environment will be examined to determine the helpfulness of synchronous online discussion as an interaction support learning activity in an international distance learning practice.

Method Subjects Twenty-four students of the international distance course between two leading Universities of Taiwan and Japan participated in the study in fall 2005. They were 6 males and 18 females both included undergraduate (8.33%) and graduate (91.67%) students. The course was delivered via video conferencing system synchronously every week accompanied with a LMS with learning materials and communication forums to support both individual and group learning. System Although there are different CMC systems in supporting online discussion, such as BBS, NetMeeting, Cosy, Eudora Pro and Sentence Openers, it should be a match between system and task to attain better learning performance. As Veerman, Andriessen, & Kanselaar (2000) suggested, instructors should establish a userfriendly and easy to understand CMC system to provide a place for learners to discuss smoothly. This study used phpbb-based online discussion boards which included technical support board and four group boards (see Fig. 1). This system was selected because it has the server and database format, quick and easy installation, and can be integrated into course website system (Lin, Yueh, & Minoh, 2006). Besides, students can share ideas and comment in open environment, instructors can monitor and provide assistance at anytime. Moreover, interface of the system is organized and user-friendly that all students can easily understand and quickly start to use it. Procedure The context of this study is an online learning activity designed by the instructor in which students were required to use the forum instructor assigned to discuss in groups synchronous. Students are free to access to computers and internet at any place they like but to log online at the required time. They are divided into four groups by instructors in advance and each group has five to seven learners, including both Taiwanese and Japanese students. Guidelines to the activity are provided online so that students can read it before starting the assignment or refer to it whenever they need to during the activity. The topic for group discussion is “What learning would be like in the next decade?” and students are encouraged to discuss it freely base on their experiences, imaginations, or refer to any resources. However, they need to complete the discussion within the time limit and then post their conclusions onto the course LMS.

Figure 1. Phpbb-based online discussion boards Analysis Technique This study adopted TAT (Fahy, 2001) as the analysis technique to analyze students’ patterns of interaction and online supportive behaviors. As shown in Tab. 1, transcripts are classified into five categories including questioning, statements, reflections, scaffolding, and references and authorities. In addition, this study adopted Fahy’s (2003) aspect and viewed type1B, 2B and 4 as online support behaviors to understand what support strategies are most used by the students. Type1B interaction helps the group establish and shape consensus to an adequate answer; type2B interaction promotes dialogue to express opinions, questions and responses to others; type4 includes greetings, thanks, encouragements and other social conversation.

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Table 1. TAT analysis structure Primary Category Type1 – Questioning Type2 – Statements

Secondary Category Type1A – vertical Type1B – horizontal Type2A – direct Type2B – answers or comments

Type3 – Reflections Type4 - Scaffolding Type5 – References, authorities (Source: Fahy, 2001).

Type5A – references, quotations Type5B – citations or attributions

Description a correct answer exists may not be one right answer do not invite response or dialogue direct answers to questions, or comments referring to specific preceding statements express thoughts, judgments, opinions or information which are personal to initiate, continue or acknowledge interpersonal interaction reference to, and quotations of other sources citations or attributions of quotations

Results To address questions of this study, the complete 289 postings, 761 sentences, 10,415 words conferencing transcript from the online discussion activity was coded and analyzed using the TAT technique to examine communications in the four groups. The result shows that group 1 produced most of the postings (36.27%), followed by group 2 (28.65%), group 3 (21.16%), and group 4 (13.92%). As seen in Tab. 2, type 2A (statements) and type 4 (scaffolding) predominated the communication at 37% and 28%, respectively, followed by type 3 (reflections) at 11%, and altogether, these three types accounted for over three-quarters (76%) of the sentences in the transcript. They were also the averagely most used types across the four groups. On the other hand, type 5B (citations) was the least type, only got 5 posts for all groups at 0.66%. Table 2. Frequency of group discussion analysis by TAT types

Type 1A Type 1B Type 2A Type 2B Type 3 Type 4 Type 5A Type 5B Total (%)

Group 1 12 16 89 12 36 66 45 0 276 (36.27)

Group 2 16 13 73 13 20 80 3 0 218 (28.65)

Group 3 13 3 86 3 16 34 2 4 161 (21.16)

Group 4 2 3 36 8 18 37 1 1 106 (13.92)

Total (%) 43 (5.65) 35 (4.60) 284 (37.31) 36 (4.74) 90 (11.83) 217 (28.51) 51 (6.70) 5 (0.66) 761 (100)

Tab. 3 shows the result of transforming type 1B, 2B and 4 into the category of supportive interaction behaviors. For all the four groups, the ratio of supportive sentences to total sentences is 37.84%. Among them, group 2 and group 4 had nearly one-half of supportive sentences, 48% and 45%, respectively. Table 3. Supportive interaction behaviors

Supportive sentences Total sentences Support behavior ratio (percentage, supportive / total sentences x 100%)

Group 1 94 276 34.05%

Group 2 106 218 48.62%

Group 3 40 161 24.84%

Group 4 48 106 45.28%

Total 288 761 37.84%

Discussion

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The results of this study were consistent with Fahy & Ally (2005) that among all groups most communication patterns are found to be type 2A and type 4. And they are varied in proportion across groups, type 2A from 53% for group 3 to 32% for group 1; type 4 from 37% for group 2 to 21% for group 3groups. Although both types had great variations, type 2A (direct statements) got biggest range (21%) which suggests differences in focus on the factual elements of the discussion and that may distinguish groups more than their involvement with the online network (type 4 scaffolding). To determine the students’ online support behavior preferences and whether peers used supportive strategies to lessen interpersonal distance and increase interaction, findings of the study showed that over one-third (37.84%) sentences were supportive interaction behaviors. The most common supportive activities focused on interpersonal recognition, extended dialogues, and demonstration of a sense of thanks, which indicates the importance of interpersonal communication in online group interactions. The results also found that some groups (group 2 and group 4) were more attentive to and involved in maintaining social network. Although the supportive behaviors were not used equally by each groups, however, all group showed the same preference (type 4) in how to demonstrate support. Moreover, finding of the study showed that students’ type 2 communication (statements, 42%) was much more than type 3 (reflections, 12%) that also concord results from former researches (Fahy, 2001; Fahy & Ally, 2005). Most contents in type 2 statements included topic-centered discussion, such as confirmation, problem construction, and explanation. In collaborative learning process, successful group learners usually provided more type 2 statements and viewed CMC systems as another learning supportive tool, and then performed well (Chan, 2001; Wilson, 2000). Besides, while asynchronous discussion provides learners more time to reflect, in synchronous discussion environment, learners may respond and comment to each other more but reflect less due to the time limitation and the immediate demands of responding. Although Walther (1996) considers CMC has negative effects on communication, such as it may take longer time for users to reach agreement than it does in face-to-face communication, students in this study still could complete the tasks in time. Some groups (group 1 and 2) even performed in an effective way. Moreover, they reflect on this activity as impressive learning activity that was helpful to their learning experience. One student further elaborate that he thought this well designed activity could “overcome the critics to e-learning that it was unable to evaluate students learning” (student A). Besides, since this is an international distance learning course, students are satisfied and appreciated the opportunity to interact with Japanese peers.

Conclusion Results of this study conclude that given a friendly, ease to use tool such as phpbb-based forum, students can perform well in online group discussion tasks. It proved that students were able to engage in collaborative online learning activities make sense of the topic through reading articles and working within the assistance from peers. Under synchronous, timed online discussion context, they came up with more topic oriented statements for discussion, along with lots of scaffolding on supportive interpersonal interaction. Fewer reflections were found due to the limitation of time and format of online activity. Moreover, it showed that synchronous online discussion activity could enhance students’ willingness to participate class activity and changed their feelings to e-learning.

References Chan, C. K. K. (2001). Peer collaboration and discourse patterns in learning from incompatible information. Instructional Science, 29, 443-479. Fahy, P.J. (2001).Addressing some common problems in transcript analysis. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 1(2). Retrieved 2006/07/08 from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/321/530 Fahy, P. J. (2003). Indicators of support in online interaction. The international Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 4(1). Retrieved 2006/07/08 from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/129/209 Fahy, P. J. & Ally, M. (2005). Student learning style and asynchronous computer-mediated conferencing (CMC) interaction. The American Journal of Distance Education, 19(1), 5-22. Hara, N., Bonk, C. J., & Angeli, C. (1998). Content analysis of online discussion in an applied educational psychology. Retrieved 2006/07/08 from http://crlt.indiana.edu/publications/journals/techreport.pdf

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