Abstract
The discussions held in specifying an automatic vehicle as a project in a distance work-related course are in focus for an analysis of learning in networked discussions. Learning is characterized as coming to experience things in distinctly new ways, in keeping with the underlying phenomenographic research approach for the study. Group discussions are seen as one feature in the experience of, and the formation of, the context for learning, in an experiential interpretation of activity systems. The analysis has led to the identification of pivotal contributions to discussions that can be said to afford learning within the group, in the sense of opening dimensions of variation around critical features of the task. This is developed to produce a taxonomy of contributions, with participatory, factual, reflective and learning contributions, suggested to be necessary, though not sufficient, conditions for learning. The taxonomy is illustrated and discussed, as are its implications for tutoring in networked courses of this type.
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Booth, S., Hultén, M. (2004). Opening dimensions of variation: An empirical study of learning in a Web-based discussion. In: Dillenbourg, P., et al. Advances in Research on Networked Learning. Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning Series, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-7909-5_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-7909-5_7
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