Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
International Conference of Educational Technology and Online Learning, Balıkesir, Türkiye, 23 Haziran 2022, ss.94-99
With the acceleration of the digitalization process by the pandemic conditions, many universities offer online or hybrid programs to their students. It seems that these models will be available as a standard option in the following years. In these online or hybrid models, sustaining a cooperative learning environment for the learners might be challenging for instructors for varying reasons. On the other hand, students are not used to such activities conducted online. It is highlighted in the related literature that cooperative learning is becoming an effective instructional strategy at all levels of education, including teaching foreign languages. Cooperative learning has been proven in a number of meta-analyses to improve student accomplishment, interaction, motivation, and overall productivity. According to some literature studies, learners can better extend their mental models and metacognition when they participate in online cooperative learning using an e-learning system. This also helps learners discuss the varying perspectives held by members of their group. In addition, research has demonstrated that cooperative learning is significantly more successful in fostering student accomplishment and interaction than individual and competitive learning. In addition, a number of research has demonstrated the positive benefits of peer facilitation and emotional aspects of online cooperative learning activities. Even though these studies have proven that online cooperative learning has many benefits, there is still a worry that students are frequently unwilling to actively participate in group work when presented in an online learning environment. In this regard, this study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of online collaborative speaking activities performed in online classes. A mixed-method design was adopted. The quantitative data were collected through Likert-type questions from the students. The data collection tool included 12 Likert-type items. The last item in the questionnaire was an open-ended question regarding the students' overall evaluation of online collaborative speaking activities. The qualitative data were subject to content analysis procedures. The questionnaire was conducted anonymously, and all participants were assured that the data would be used solely for research reasons and that their participation was voluntary. The findings mainly showed that the students benefited from online collaborative speaking activities, particularly in the idea generation process. However, the results of this study also indicated that the interaction among the students was limited during the online activities, which adversely affected the ultimate performances of the learners. In addition, some other challenges were reported by the participants.