Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online 2015-05
Enhancing participation and learning in an online forum by providing information on educational influence / La información sobre el ejercicio de la influencia educativa como medio para favorecer la participación y el aprendizaje en un foro en línea
The information provided to participants regarding their activity is a key focus of recent studies aiming to improve the processes and outcomes of computer-supported collaborative learning. The information that is ultimately made available is linked to that considered to be important for online collaborative learning processes. The study presented here attaches special importance both to educational influence and to the distribution of this influence among the participants. Participants were 42 university students. They were given information regarding certain indicators of their participation in the forums, which were theoretically related to the exercise of educational influence at both group and individual levels. The objectives were to analyse the impact of information on the evolution of activity across the forums, and the relationship with the value that participants assigned to the forums and the usefulness of the forums in the learning process. The results indicated that only individual information had a significant impact on participation in subsequent forums. Future studies should incorporate questions related to the meaning that participants ascribe to the information provided to them.
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