Collaborative Work By Graduate Students: A Comparison Of Modalities
Collaborative Work By Graduate Students: A Comparison Of Modalities

Summary/Abstract: Online learning as a choice in higher education has grown exponentially. Research has indicated the importance for instructors to provide opportunity for student collaboration through use of online tools such as wikis, discussion boards, and group projects. A survey methodology was employed to gather higher education students’ opinions on both participation in group projects at the post-secondary level and the efficacy of using wikis versus traditional formats such as face-to-face interaction or discussion boards as collaboration tools. Responses were collected from two groups of students taking a graduate level course called Life Span Development; one traditional face-to-face group and one online web-based group, with a total number of 66 participants. The results of this study support the values of integration of student collaboration in group work on course assignments Furthermore, this study provided comparison and contrast between the three collaboration modalities of discussion boards, face to face groups, and wikis. This study provides support for further research to analyze benefits and challenges of these modalities and others on multiple types of assignments.

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