Análisis de la interacción grupal para la construcción del conocimiento en entornos de comunicación asincrónica

Abstract

In this paper we discuss some preliminary findings from an evaluation on online interactions within a graduate course offered by the University of Seville. The course uses asynchronous electronic conferencing to provide students at a distance with a collaborative learning environment. We explore the syntactic structure and cognitive functions of participants in an asynchronous learning environment. An adapted system of the Discussion Analysis Tool (Jeong, 2004) was used to identify patterns in interactions and determine which interactions promoted critical thinking. We found that in the structured discourses the knowledge construction process reached a very high phase of critical thinking. Implications for practice are also discussed.