Abstract
This study was conducted to investigate the quality and nature of the students' interactions during asynchronous online problem solving in two sections of College Algebra taught by the author. In a shared-work section, students worked independently for an initial phase and had access to classmates' work during a follow-up phase. Students in the other section worked on the same assignments in designated small groups. The student work was used to develop a general coding scheme for asynchronous interaction and a refined coding scheme to determine whether a student used classmates' work, the level of individual contribution, and the relative correctness of the solutions. In both sections, the students tended to work independently, using classmates' work to compare answers or get assistance, but the small-groups section displayed a higher level of participation and interaction, including traditional forms of interaction such as asking questions and responding to group members.
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