Enhancing Equity and Access Via Digitally-mediated Collaborative Learning Experiences

This project aims to serve the national interest by establishing best practices to increase access to high-quality education for all students regardless of where they live. Research indicates that engaging students in collaborative activities is associated with increased student persistence and improved student learning outcomes and retention. Different teaching methods and resources have been developed and tested to improve collaboration during face-to-face instruction. However, there is a lack of evidence-based practices to maximize synchronous collaborative learning in online environments. COVID-19 exposed the need to adapt collaborative learning activities to fit a variety of delivery modes, with the use of video conferences and other technology tools. However, the need to provide high quality online and collaborative experiences may be a vital strategy for increasing future equity and access to education in general, especially to the increasingly diverse population of students who seek STEM education. This project will advance understanding about the interconnections between online learning, equity and access. Synchronous online collaborative learning activities have the potential to widen the digital equity gap, affecting students from low socioeconomic groups, or across different time zones. On the other hand, these activities increase the perception of "real interactions," which are negatively impacted by reliance on e-mails, online forums, and chat messaging systems. The first part of this project will investigate the impact of students' choice of synchronous or asynchronous classes on their learning goals, sense of belonging and satisfaction. The second part of this project will develop online strategies for collaborative learning that are adapted from the evidence-based face-to-face facilitation strategies, including the use of group awareness tools and designated team roles.

To better understand how online collaborative learning can bolster equity and provide critical social support for students as they wrestle through the challenges of learning, the project will answer the following research questions: 1) How does the schedule of synchronous computer-supported collaborative learning activities affect access and equity?; and 2) How face-to-face facilitation strategies can be adapted for use in online environments, especially to enhance equity and access? To address the first question, students will be split into two sections which will determine how they will complete the collaborative learning activities, either following the designated university schedule time, or a time of their choosing. Performance and participation data will be collected to measure the impact of the intervention, as well as class observations, and sense of belonging and satisfaction surveys. For the second research question, this research project will develop online tools to incorporate facilitation strategies for online collaborative learning activities. As part of this research, the new tools will be tested, and several metrics will be used to measure its effectiveness. All the online tools developed for this project will be part of an open-source software that is currently widely adopted in many universities. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.