More and more educational institutions have been moving towards delivering courses and programs at a distance. Although
asynchronous online courses overcome the constraints of time, students feel isolated due to the lack of real-time communications. One
possible solution to overcome this isolation been suggested that learner's online behavior and peer-interaction will be more regulated and
stimulated by assigning roles to learners in discussion activities. Additionally, roles encourage learners to take more responsibility for
their own learning by responding to discussion questions, replying to peers, constructing knowledge, disputing and negotiating with peers
within amount of time during the learning process. The study explored the use of the Starter-Wrapper with Roles technique in a fully
online class in order to address the overarching question: How does the Starter-Wrapper with Roles technique support sense of community in
an online class? Three supporting research questions were addressed: (1) How do students fulfill their assigned roles when using the
Starter-Wrapper with Roles technique? (2) How does each of the four roles contribute to student experience in terms of sense of
connectedness, sense of learning from others, sense of learning through articulation, sense of learning from course materials, and sense
of responsibility? (3) How does the interdependence of roles and role rotation support sense of community? There were 81 students
initially signed up the study, however, the number was down to 63 by the end of week 8. I then adjusted discussion groups in order to have
a sufficient number of participants in each discussion group. Among 63 students, there were 37 students actually participated in the
discussion and 26 student never participated. There were 33 students completed the survey and 18 students participated in the interview at
the end of the semester. The results indicated that (1) students generally followed the duties assigned to them. However, not everyone
completed their tasks on time, and depending on their assigned role the effect could be problematic. Almost all starters initiated
discussion questions and completed their task on time. Even though most wrappers performed their tasks as expected and on time, some
wrappers did not summarize at all. Moderators interacted with participants in the midst of discussion primarily by restating details in
previous posts and providing feedback on others' ideas. They posted messages on time but did not posting enough messages. Participants
were more willing to respond to discussion questions than reply to their classmates' responses. (2) Students reported different levels of
sense of connectedness, sense of learning, and sense of responsibility depending on the role they fulfilled. Participants reported a
significantly higher sense of connectedness and perceived learning from articulating ideas in their posts than starters. Compared to the
wrapper, moderator, and participant roles, starters reported lower perceived learning from others. Furthermore, the starters' learning was
most dependent on the course materials, and the wrappers' learning was the least dependent. Finally, Starters experienced a significantly
higher sense of responsibility in that role than as a wrapper, moderator, or participant. (3) Students reported a higher sense of
community when their classmates mentioned each other by name, answered their questions, or commented on each other's posts rather than
make individual posts. (4) Interdependent roles and roles rotation provide students diverse learning experience and experience
interdependence in different ways (e.g., to depend on others, to have others depending on them). Students depend on their classmates to
participate when using the Starter-Wrapper with Roles technique. Participants need the starter to begin the discussion by posting a
discussion question, moderators need the participants to respond to discussion questions so they can contribute their replies, and the
wrapper needs to read everyone's messages in order to wrap up the discussion. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial
fulfillment of the Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2016. / March 29, 2016. / Feeling of Isolation, Interdependence, Intersubjectivity, Online Course, Role Assignment, Sense of
Community / Includes bibliographical references. / Vanessa P. Dennen, Professor Directing Dissertation; Paul F. Marty, University Representative;
Marcy P. Driscoll, Committee Member; James D. Klein, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_360384 |
| Contributors | Jiang, Wenting (authoraut), Dennen, Vanessa P. (professor directing dissertation), Marty, Paul F. (university representative), Driscoll, Marcy Perkins (committee member), Klein, James D. (committee member), Florida State University (degree granting institution), College of Education (degree granting college), Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems (degree granting department) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource (165 pages), computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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