Methodological Consequences for the Empirical Study

In this study, an online DBL environment was created to be used in a university course concerning design and building websites. A computer-supported collaboration script and incomplete concept maps as independent variables were used. Regarding the dependent variables, collaboration and content-related discourse processes, and quality of published websites were measured as collaborative learning outcomes as well as declarative and procedural knowledge related to the design and building websites, which were measured as individual learning outcomes. Following, a framework including control variables, dependent variables, and independent variables will be conceptualized.

Based on the theoretical background, the collaboration skills and content-related discourse processes are expected to widely affect the acquisition of web design skills through online DBL environment. Supporting such processes through the design activities may enable students to engage in them through other unstructured situations. Therefore, such processes are likely to be apparent and well accessible through the collaborative students’ discussions.

However, processes of collaboration skills and content-related discourse are expected to be influenced by a number of context factors in online DBL (learning task, environmental organization, learning structure, individual learning prerequisites, the computer-supported collaboration script, and incomplete concept maps). Regarding environmental organization and learning task, the students will participate in the same learning environment, same context organization, and same design task. Therefore, the experimental conditions are expected to be similar and comparable to standard conditions of students within the natural variance. With respect to individual learning prerequisites, this factor will be assessed and tested regarding declarative and procedural knowledge related to the design and building of websites. The students are assigned to dyads and conditions based on their pre-web design knowledge and skills, in a manner to guarantee equivalence between all conditions. Thus, all

context factors except the computer-supported collaboration script and incomplete concept maps are held constant between the experimental conditions.

Collaboration and content-related discourse processes have been identified as essential aspects of the development of web design skills through online DBL. With respect to collaboration process, the social activities identify the different activities and roles based on interaction-related prompts that students participate in during their collaborative discussions as well as defining how each student interacts with his/her partner through the small group discussions. In the framework of this study, the collaboration skills include asking high level questions, giving high level answers, and giving high level reactions to answers (accepting answers with comments or refusing answers with justifications). Content- related discourse process points towards discussing and using the concepts and relationships that exist in the contents students deal with. These content-related activities are supposed to engage the students collaboratively in discussions and constructing knowledge, which in turn may facilitate the acquisition of domain-general and domain-specific knowledge related to the design and building of websites. In the framework of this study, the content-related discourse quality points towards used web design concepts which are realized through the students’ unstructured discussion.

Regarding how the two kinds of instructional support affect the expected outcomes, computer-supported collaboration script and incomplete concept maps will be applied through the students’ discussions that will be conducted in chat rooms embedded in online DBL environment. Collaboration script specifies sequences and distributes learning activities and roles among learners through their discussions. The computer-supported collaboration script will be based on King’s (1999) script approach that can be implemented in online CSCL environments. Incomplete concept maps may provide visual representations that graphically reflect relations between concepts. The concept maps will be provided in the form of incomplete maps that involve missing concepts and relationships, which in turn are likely to evoke students’ discussions about this missing information in the content. Combination between the collaboration script and incomplete concept maps may facilitate the interaction and collaboration between the students as well as enabling the students to focus more on learning the content. Therefore, supporting the students’ design-based discussions with social and content scaffolds is expected to increase students’ discussions and engage them in higher level discourse processes on website design concepts. In this way, collaboration script and incomplete concept maps may facilitate processes and outcomes of design and building websites.

The outcomes of the current study include both collaborative learning outcomes that are observable in the students’ discourses and products (published websites) as well as individual learning outcomes, namely, knowledge and skills related to the design and building websites. Several types and qualities of outcomes can be distinguished. In the context of collaborative knowledge construction, different kinds of applicable knowledge can

be distinguished as learning outcomes. The number of used web design concepts during an unstructured chat discussion that is conducted after the treatment (i.e. which will be conducted without collaboration script and incomplete concept maps) will be used as indicator for the first collaborative learning outcome, which is content-related discourse quality. The ability to apply different kinds of high-level questions, answers, and reactions to answers that can be observed in the unstructured chat discussion after the treatment has ended will be used as a second type of collaborative knowledge construction that indicates the collaboration skills students have acquired over the course of the study. Finally, the ability to publish websites collaboratively according to the constructive standards for designing websites students are supposed to learn through a set of online tutorial lessons on web design knowledge that is presented in the online DBL environment will be used to indicate the quality of the published websites, which are the fourth type of collaborative learning outcomes.

Individual learning outcomes are the individuals’ declarative and procedural knowledge on web design that are measured by factual knowledge test and application- oriented knowledge test. The ability to answer multiple choice questions directed towards the functionalities of FrontPage software that the students had to use for designing and building their websites and the constructivist standards of design and building websites will be used to indicate the students’ learning of factual knowledge related to design and building websites. In addition, the ability to practice and demonstrate specific web design skills (e.g., changing text font, adding frames to the web page, and inserting flash files) by using FrontPage software will be used to indicate the individual acquisition of web deign skills.