Abstract:

Most educational sites will find it difficult to conduct face-to-face classes during the Corona Disaster in FY2020. Online classes have attracted attention, and an increasing number of educational sites have begun to use them. However, according to the COVID-19 Emergency Questionnaire (Tokyo University of Science, 2020, Question 13), asynchronous online classes were frequently conducted, while synchronous remote learning classes were infrequent. This may be because the method of conducting synchronous remote learning had not been established. Kano's (2020) study also found that the most common method of online classes was in the form of assignment submission. At the same time, Kano (2020) also noted that in synchronous remote learning classes, "group discussion in zoom is the most favorite."

Kato et al. (2005) pointed out the relationship between communication and social presence, so we also investigated social presence. This study defines social presence as "When we connect with others in new social situations, we create social presence or a degree of interpersonal contact" (Gunawardena and Zittle,1997). Therefore, in this study, we focused on synchronous remote learning, and, we conducted cooperative learning in a computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environment and focused on communication among students.

We designed a collaborative learning class using a digital whiteboard, "Google Jamboard," in a Zoom breakout room as one of the teaching methods in the CSCL environment. In addition, we created a questionnaire focusing on communication among students in the class. We implemented the class assuming an online and a face-to-face for university students. Sixteen students participated in the online class, and twenty students in-person class. We conducted a questionnaire survey which were classified into three groups: “communication,” “learning satisfaction,” and “social presence”. Cronbach's alpha coefficients were 0.89, 0.95, and 0.80, respectively, indicating reliability.

In addition, we conducted Mann-Whitney U-tests for online and face-to-face classes. The results showed that the face-to-face class was more significant in "Communication" with p<0.001, r=0.743, U=39.0. However, in the "communication" category, the mean difference between online and face-to-face was -0.38 for the item "I was able to express my thoughtfulness in this class," which is a minor mean difference in this category. In "satisfaction with learning," p=0.506, r=0.135, U=131.5, there was no significant difference between the online and face-to-face classes regarding the approach and content of assignments. The "social presence" results were p=0.032, r=0.408, and U=90.0, indicating that the face-to-face class was more significant.

One of the current issues is that the subjects in this experiment did not accustom to using Jamboard in online classes, which may be one reason they needed clarification to tackle the tasks.The expected result of this study was that there would be no significant difference between online and in-person. However, the author still needs to obtain the expected results. Therefore, it is necessary to revise the issues in the experiment.

Keywords:

CSCL, Digital Whiteboard, Communication, Social Presence, Online Class.