19: Social Interactions in Asynchronous Statistics Courses: from Group Work to Collaboration.

Music City Center 

The rise of virtual instruction in recent years has highlighted its flexibility, accessibility, and the elimination of physical space constraints. Online learning is especially beneficial for students with diverse needs and schedules that make attending in-person classes challenging. Asynchronous online courses further enhance these advantages by allowing students to engage with course content at their convenience. To foster peer interaction, many online courses incorporate discussion forums. However, these assignments often lack the structure, format, and accountability necessary for high-quality and meaningful interactions. This study employs a classroom research model to introduce, refine, and evaluate Collaborative Keys (CKs) within an undergraduate setting. Specifically, we explore how revisions to the CKs improved cooperative learning in an asynchronous online introductory statistics course. Using a modified version of the Community of Inquiry framework, a social constructivism framework, we assessed key social elements of student interactions before and after implementing substantial revisions. The revised CKs were designed to enhance student-to-student engagement by shifting from whole-class discussions to small-group collaborations, promoting individual accountability through personal responses, and fostering positive interdependence by requiring a shared final answer within each group. Our initial findings indicate that these revisions strengthened group connections and improved social interactions, suggesting that structured, small-group collaboration can enhance the effectiveness of asynchronous online learning.