The Impact of Using an Online Collaborative Platform in Blended Learning on Postsecondary Vocational School Year One Students' Self-Regulated Learning Abilities: A Quasi-Experimental Research
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.58459/icce.2024.4945Abstract
Self-regulated learning (SRL) abilities refer to learners' abilities to achieve their individual learning goals in the continuous learning process. While previous research has demonstrated the positive impact of SRL abilities on learning outcomes, there is a lack of exploration regarding the use of online collaborative whiteboards as regulating scaffolds (e.g., organizational structure for learning or tasks, tools for communication and knowledge co-construction, and timely feedback) for affecting students' SRL abilities in blended learning contexts. Therefore, 141 students participated in this quasi-experimental study to evaluate the influence of blended learning through BoardMix, an online collaborative whiteboard platform, on the SRL abilities of year one students in a Chinese postsecondary vocational school. During a four-week learning, with the pedagogical approach based on Zimmerman's cyclical model of SRL, students in the experimental group used the BoardMix platform to collaborate with each other. The Online Self-Regulated Learning Questionnaire (OLSQ) (Barnard et al., 2009) was used to collect quantitative data in pre-tests and post-tests for both experimental and control groups, and ANCOVA was adopted to analyze the data. The ANCOVA results revealed significant improvements in SRL abilities and significant differences between the experimental and control groups. Collaborating through the online platform BoardMix significantly enhanced the SRL abilities of the experimental group. In the second phase of this research project, qualitative research was adopted to provide deeper insights into the influence of online whiteboards on learners' SRL abilities, and future applications of collaborative learning can be explored based on these findings which will be presented in another paper.