Comparing the Functions of Different Assigned Student Roles in Online Conversations PROCEEDINGS
Alyssa Wise, Marzieh Saghafian, Poornima Padmanabhan, Simon Fraser University, Canada
E-Learn: World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education, in Vancouver, Canada ISBN 978-1-880094-76-1 Publisher: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE), Chesapeake, VA
This study aims to extend our understanding of how different assigned student roles function in asynchronous online conversations. While assigning students roles is a popular technique, what roles are assigned and what specific responsibilities they entail are critical factors mediating what effect the roles have on online discussion. This study critical examines the kinds of roles students are commonly asked to play and identifies set of seven common functions they ask learners to serve. This set of functions is then used to generate a refined and expanded set of role descriptions for investigation in online discussion contexts. In the future we will report on the development and testing of a revised coding scheme (currently underway) to assess the degree to which this new roles set was functionally enacted by students in an authentic setting
Wise, A., Saghafian, M. & Padmanabhan, P. (2009). Comparing the Functions of Different Assigned Student Roles in Online Conversations. In T. Bastiaens, J. Dron & C. Xin (Eds.), Proceedings of E-Learn: World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education 2009 (pp. 2034-2042). Chesapeake, VA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).
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