Indicators for cooperative, online-based learning processes: Development and evaluation

Learning is a constructive and social process that works best in interaction with other people. In online-based learning environments, interaction and cooperation between students play an especially important role in supporting successful learning. This paper proposes indicators for monitoring the activity and interactivity of both students and instructors in cooperative online-based learning environments. These indicators are then applied in a case study of three online-based courses.

The results show that the indicators can provide important insight into the activity and interactivity of students. If they are rounded out with data on workload, exam results and course evaluation, these indicators can also help gain insight into the quality of learnig processes and learning outcomes.