On-line dialogues of college students in a web problem-based learning (WPBL) context

This study aims to explore how university students solve problems collaboratively in a Web Problem-Based Learning (WPBL) system during a five-week engineering course. In particular, this study used discourse analysis to examine the process and nature of the students' online dialogues in order to understand their cognitive learning in the WPBL system during six PBL tasks: problem confirmation, recognition and discovery, planning, alternatives assessment, construction and evaluation. In addition, the impact of prior academic performance on the online dialogues was examined by comparing differences between the log files of students from two national universities and those from three private universities.