Identifying Learner Behaviors, Conflicting and Facilitating Factors in an Online Learning Community

The purpose of this study is to identify patterns of learner behaviors, conflicting and facilitating factors during collaborative work in an online learning community(OLC). This study further seeks to investigate the difference of learner behaviors between high- and low-performing groups, and conflicting and facilitating factors. The online postings from four groups(19 students) in the spring semester(study 1) and six groups(24 students) in the fall semester(study 2) were analyzed. A coding scheme was generated based on constant comparison using the qualitative data analysis tool, NVivo. The analysis identified 7 categories of learner behaviors in both studies. Among the seven categories, information seeking and co-construction were most frequently observed in both studies. One evident difference between the high- and low-performing groups was that the high-performing groups revealed more incidents of learner behaviors in both studies. In addition, six categories of conflicting factors and five categories of facilitating factors were emerged in both studies. The inefficiency of work category was one of the most frequently observed categories in both studies. Interestingly, the high-performing groups showed more incidents of conflicting factors than the low-performing groups. This study revealed two different types of conflicting factors and there is a need for different moderating strategies depending on its type. Based on the results of the study, effective design strategies for an OLC to facilitate active learning were suggested.