A comparative study of the effects of instructional design-based scaffolding and management-based scaffolding on learning in online collaborative groups

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of scaffolding conditions in fully online collaborative groups on a performance outcome, social experiences, and interaction processes. To achieve this, a performance outcome, social ability, satisfaction, interaction types, and interaction levels were compared across different scaffolding conditions. Additionally, the study sought to identify variables that influenced student's perceived satisfaction and group performance in an online group. This study used a posttest-only control-group as a research design. There were three treatment conditions and one control group. The treatment conditions were resource distribution scaffolding, instructor's feedback scaffolding, and combined distribution and feedback scaffolding. Both quantitative data (e.g. numbers of posted messages, essay score, social ability score, and satisfaction score) and qualitative data (online discussion transcripts) were collected and analyzed to answer the research questions in this study. The results of this study indicated no statistically significant effects of scaffolds on the group performance, perceived satisfaction, social ability, interaction levels, and interaction types. In addition, mediation could not be established for the theoretically interesting relationships. However, student's social ability was related to perceived satisfaction.