Jeitziner Loris T, Paneth Lisa, Rack Oliver, Zahn Carmen
School of Applied Psychology, Institute for Cooperation Research and Development, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, Olten, Switzerland.
Front Psychol. 2024 Aug 14;15:1347073. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1347073. eCollection 2024.
In the future of higher education, student learning will become more virtual and group-oriented, and this new reality of academic learning comes with challenges. Positive social interactions in virtual synchronous student learning groups are not self-evident but need extra support. To successfully support positive social interactions, the underlying group processes, such as collaborative group engagement, need to be understood in detail, and the important question arises: How can collaborative group engagement be assessed in virtual group learning settings? A promising methodological approach is the observation of students' non-verbal behavior, for example, in videoconferences. In an exploratory field study, we observed the non-verbal behavior of psychology students in small virtual synchronous learning groups solving a complex problem via videoconferencing. The groups were videorecorded to analyze possible relations between their non-verbal behaviors and to rate the quality of collaborative group engagement (QCGE). A rating scheme consisting of four QCGE dimensions (Behavioral, Social, Cognitive, and Conceptual-to-consequential QCGE) was applied, and non-verbal behaviors during the task were coded based on related research literature. We quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed non-verbal behaviors as indicators of QCGE. The results show that groups use a wide range of non-verbal behaviors. Furthermore, certain non-verbal behaviors are significantly related to specific dimensions of QCGE. These results help to identify relevant indicators of QCGE in virtual synchronous learning settings and thus promote the development of advanced methods for assessing QCGE. Furthermore, the indicators can be discussed as possible anchors for supporting collaborative learning in virtual synchronous groups.
在高等教育的未来，学生学习将变得更加虚拟化且以小组为导向，而这种学术学习的新现实带来了挑战。在虚拟同步学生学习小组中的积极社交互动并非不言而喻，而是需要额外支持。为了成功支持积极的社交互动，需要详细了解潜在的小组过程，如协作性小组参与，于是出现了一个重要问题：如何在虚拟小组学习环境中评估协作性小组参与？一种有前景的方法是观察学生的非言语行为，例如在视频会议中。在一项探索性实地研究中，我们观察了心理学专业学生在小型虚拟同步学习小组中通过视频会议解决复杂问题时的非言语行为。对这些小组进行录像，以分析他们非言语行为之间的可能关系，并对协作性小组参与质量（QCGE）进行评分。应用了一个由四个QCGE维度（行为、社交、认知和概念到结果的QCGE）组成的评分方案，并根据相关研究文献对任务期间的非言语行为进行编码。我们对非言语行为进行了定量和定性分析，将其作为QCGE的指标。结果表明，各小组使用了广泛的非言语行为。此外，某些非言语行为与QCGE的特定维度显著相关。这些结果有助于识别虚拟同步学习环境中QCGE的相关指标，从而促进评估QCGE的先进方法的发展。此外，这些指标可以作为支持虚拟同步小组中协作学习的可能依据进行讨论。
