A Study of Synchronous vs. Asynchronous Collaborative Design in Students‟ Learning Motivation

Abstract

Collaborative applications of cloud computing have garnered considerable attention in recent years, but little effort has been devoted to exploring the effects of them on students' learning motivation. In this study, we use Google Docs to support students in collaboratively designing the structure of the website. In this quasi-experimental design, 49 university students participated in the study. The participants were divided into two groups, an "experimental group" and a "control group." The experimental group was able to simultaneously design the structure of the website, namely synchronous design, while the control group designed the website asynchronously. The results show that synchronous design was not particularly helpful in motivating students' learning when compared to asynchronous design.; Collaborative applications of cloud computing have garnered considerable attention in recent years, but little effort has been devoted to exploring the effects of them on students' learning motivation. In this study, we use Google Docs to support students in collaboratively designing the structure of the website. In this quasi-experimental design, 49 university students participated in the study. The participants were divided into two groups, an "experimental group" and a "control group." The experimental group was able to simultaneously design the structure of the website, namely synchronous design, while the control group designed the website asynchronously. The results show that synchronous design was not particularly helpful in motivating students' learning when compared to asynchronous design.