The Selection of Learning Partners in Online Group Discussion
Abstract: This paper explores how university senior students choose their partners for online group discussion and what are the features of discussion within various groups. A total of 56 senior students in Shanghai participated in this study. A questionnaire was used to investigate the main factors for students to choose their partners. Qualitive and quantitative analysis of senior students’ online discourse indicated that students who chose learning partners based on the same interests or learning goals showed deeper understanding of knowledge than those who chose friends to be their learning partners. The social network of online discourse showed that students would interact with others more frequently in interests-based group compared with friends-based group or the whole class.