collaborative-learning
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- PaperReCALL7 Jul 2026
WeChat-based collaborative self-regulated learning program: Exploring self-regulated learning strategy use, writing performance, and learning behaviors
Fan Su, Ying Zhao, Di Zou, Biyun Huang
This study compared individual and collaborative self-regulated learning (SRLL) contexts using WeChat for university EFL learners' writing. The collaborative group showed higher overall SRLL strategy use (except motivational), better writing performance, and distinctive behaviors like time monitoring and feedback awareness. Findings suggest integrating individual and collaborative modes to support self-, co-, and socially shared regulation.
Original abstract
In technology-enhanced language learning (TELL), self-regulated language learning (SRLL) strategies are essential for supporting English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ writing development. As collaborative learning becomes increasingly prominent in TELL, SRLL has expanded from individual regulation to collaborative contexts. However, limited research has compared how individual and collaborative SRLL contexts influence learners’ strategy use, writing performance, and learning behaviors. To address this gap, this study used WeChat as a mobile learning platform to compare university-level EFL learners’ SRLL strategy use, writing performance, and behavioral patterns in individual and collaborative self-regulated writing programs. Two intact classes were assigned to either a WeChat-based individual group (WIG) or a WeChat-based collaborative group (WCG). The collected data included SRLL strategy use questionnaire, writing scores, and WeChat learning logs. Results showed that the collaborative context promoted learners’ overall, cognitive, metacognitive, and behavioral SRLL strategy use, although no significant difference was found in motivational strategy use. The WCG also achieved higher writing performance and showed distinctive regulatory behaviors related to time monitoring and feedback awareness. These findings suggest that SRLL is a dynamic and cyclical process shaped by task demands, technological affordances, and social interaction. They also highlight the value of integrating individual and collaborative learning modes to support learners’ movement between self-regulation, co-regulation, and socially shared regulation.
- PaperComputers & Education2 Jul 2026
Analysing student engagement in breakout rooms in an online language course
Katja Peltola, Marjaana Veermans, Sara Routarinne
In a 14-week synchronous online language course, recordings of breakout room interactions from two small groups were analyzed using qualitative content and discourse analysis. The study found that affective, behavioral, and cognitive engagement often co-occur and can support or hinder each other, with three collaborative engagement practices identified: participation in group discussions, making and negotiating proposals, and collaborative writing.
Original abstract
As the popularity of online courses in higher education keeps increasing, the importance of student engagement gets highlighted. In an online learning environment, peer interaction gets emphasised when students work in small groups in breakout rooms. In this case study, qualitative content analysis and discourse analysis were used to analyse breakout room recordings (458 minutes in total) of two small groups in a 14-week synchronous online language course. The study focused on how engagement at small group level seems to emerge from the group’s interaction, which is a primordial site for language learning, and what kind of collaborative engagement practices seem to support it. The findings suggest that affective, behavioural, and cognitive engagement often co-occur and that they may either support or hinder each other. Also, the group members may be engaged in diverse ways at the same time. Three collaborative engagement practices were identified: participation in group discussions, making and negotiating proposals, and collaborative writing. Participation in group discussions highlighted the importance of both verbal and nonverbal communication and the importance of equity in participation. When making proposals, the role of tentativeness was emphasised as that seemed to open space for interaction in the small group. Finally, collaborative writing was found to engage students specifically from the language learning perspective. The findings suggest that small group interaction and collaboration play a key role in group level engagement. It is suggested that small group level should be taken into consideration when operationalising the concept of engagement in online learning environments.
- PaperarXiv — AI in Education (cs.CY)29 Jun 2026
Less Deliberate in Teams: Student LLM Use Across Individual and Collaborative Work
Sehrish Basir Nizamani, Zannah Ziew, Saad Nizamani, Khyati Goyal
A semester-long study tracked 96 undergraduate computing students across individual and team assignments, finding a 42.7 percentage point drop in LLM usage during team work. Students used fewer prompts, simpler strategies, and verified AI output less carefully when collaborating. Collaborative context appears to reduce deliberate LLM engagement beyond task type alone.
Original abstract
As large language models (LLMs) become common in computing courses, we need to understand how the social setting shapes how students use them. This paper reports findings from a semester-long study of 96 undergraduate students who completed six assignments, alternating between individual homework and team project milestones. We tracked LLM usage, prompting habits, and how students verified AI-generated output across all six assignments. LLM usage dropped by 42.7 percentage points when students moved from individual work to their first team milestone, then partly recovered in later team tasks. Students also wrote fewer and simpler prompts, used fewer intentional prompting strategies, and checked LLM output less carefully. The share of students who ran tests on AI-generated code fell by 19.4 percentage points during team assignments and never fully rebounded. A within-student analysis found that 18.9% of students who consistently used LLMs on their own stopped using them entirely in teams, while only 3.2% went the other direction. These results suggest that collaborative context is associated with reduced deliberate LLM engagement beyond what task type alone can explain. The moment students form teams appears to be a critical and currently unsupported turning point in computing course design.