How Semi-Formal Group Work can Support Learning in Large Online Classes

This research looking into how the amount of group-work a learner does and their role in the group affects learning. The learners (n = 2260) in this study were taking classes at the OCU (Open Cyber University), and the present study looks at the effects of their self-generated group-work. Of the learners who were a part of this study 62% participated in some type of semi-formal group-work. This group work was voluntary so the high level of participation shows that students felt that is would be helpful for their learning (Costley & Lange, 2018). This follows other research on the topic that shows that learners often found group work helpful when dealing with abstract of difficult contents when studying online (Butson & Thomson). The results of this study show a strong positive relationship between the level of group work students do and higher levels of learning. However, as an individual’s contribution to the group increased, there was a negative relationship with learning. This led to an interesting moderating effect, whereby as the strong positive relationship between group work level and learning was weakened by the inclusion of group contribution in the model. In other words, the high contributors did not get the benefits of group work to the same degree that the low contributors did. This research used the survey method and moderation analysis was done using PROCESS macro model 1 (Hayes, 2013).