The aim of the Multigenerational Learning Program (MLP) is to increase multigenerational interactions through activities, which will help all learners including middle aged to older adults, university students, and children to improve multigenerational understanding, and increase their positive attitudes toward each other. The MLP activities were…

Online discussion is a commonly used means to promote student understanding of a topic and to facilitate social interaction among students or between students and instructor; however, its effects on student learning in online learning environments have rarely been investigated. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of online discussion…

Although research has identified the importance of interaction behaviors in computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL), very few attempts have been made to carry out in-depth analysis of interaction behaviors. This study thus applies both qualitative (e.g., content analyses, interviews) and quantitative methods in an attempt to investigate…

This article attempts to shed some light on the possible learning benefits for language acquisition and intercultural development of authentic social interaction with expert peers through computer mediated communication (CMC) tools. The environments used in this study are video communication and the 3D virtual world "Second Life." For…

This paper presents empirical research results regarding the impact of Interaction Analysis (IA) graphs on groups of students collaborating through online blogging according to a "learning by design" scenario. The IA graphs used are of two categories; the first category summarizes quantitatively the activity of the users for each blog,…

Despite the growing popularity of paired format speaking assessments, the effects of pre-task planning time on performance in these formats are not yet well understood. For example, some studies have revealed the benefits of planning but others have not. Using a multifaceted approach including analysis of the process of speaking performance, the…

This study aimed to investigate the perceptions, interactions and behaviours of different-ability college students when they worked on different types of assessments. Two classes of 145 Vietnamese college students participated in this three-month study. The students were assigned to mixed-ability groups, each of which consisted of five students.…

Employers in the 21st century seek graduates with a demonstrated ability to be independent, self-managing, lifelong learners. In this paper the authors explore student responses to a tutorial activity designed to promote lifelong learning skills. The activity is framed around situated learning theory, and capitalises on the affordances of video…

This study examined how cultural background (collectivism vs. individualism) affects motor skill learning in a dyadic cooperative learning environment. The research context of this study was Nintendo™ Wii Tennis. Twenty college students from a Midwestern university participated in the study, among whom half were from an individualistic culture…

There has been a growing body of research on the identification of particular characteristics or factors that can be used to predict learners' success in online learning environments. However, there still exists much uncertainty about the conditions that are essential to create a successful online venture for both learners and educators. The…

World-wide, universities in health sciences have transformed their curriculum to include collaborative learning and facilitate the students' learning process. Interaction has been acknowledged to be the synergistic element in this learning context. However, students spend the majority of their time outside their classroom and interaction does not…

It is intuitively felt that visual cues should enhance online communication, and this experimental study aims to test this prediction by exploring the value provided by a webcam in an online L2 pedagogical teacher-to-learner interaction. A total of 40 French undergraduate students with a B2 level in English were asked to describe in English four…

Teamwork and interpersonal communication are indispensable skills for business workers, and most companies are promoting diversity in teams to gain a competitive edge. Although findings suggest that diversity may not be as valuable as it seems for most teams, business workers need to manage diversity successfully. Therefore, the present authors…

Organizations are increasingly interested in creating learning opportunities for their employees. This article explores and describes how a university planned to increase employee interactions and organizational learning opportunities by fostering emergence of communities of practice. In this case study, Saint Xavier University offered an academic…

This study investigates cultural and communication medium effects on conversational argumentation in a decision-making context. Chinese and U.S. participants worked in pairs on two decision-making tasks via face-to-face (FtF) and instant messaging (IM). The analyses showed that Chinese participants tended to engage in potentially more complex…