The participants' activity as a source of information to promote collaboration. A learning analytic based on the Distributed Educational Influence model

Abstract

This article introduces the initial version of a learning analytic based in the model of distributed educational influence (DEI). The central idea of the DEI model is that in collaborative learning situations all the participants are potential sources of support for other participants. On this basis, a research was carried out with a triple objective: i) to analyze if the information provided to the participants has an impact on their collaborative process, ii) to determine whether the provided information has a differential effect depending on the nature of its content and iii) to contrast the usefulness of the analytic developed to analyze the processes of online collaboration. For this purpose, four groups of master's degree students participating in a series of online forums were studied. In general, the results indicate that the information provided to the participants about their activity has an impact on their collaborative processes. However, it has not been possible to demonstrate any differential impact on their collaboration processes depending on the nature of the provided information. The results also point out some limitations on the indicators of the learning analytic proposed.