The current study examined the effects of different types of instructor comments on student engagement in an online discussion. In particular, this study examined three comment types: (1) praise-oriented comments, agreeing with students’ initial messages and recapping their ideas, (2) elaboration-encouraging comments, requesting elaboration on the initial messages, and (3) perspective-widening comments, suggesting different or thought-provoking opinions responding to the initial messages. Seventeen graduate students enrolled in an online course were recruited. A content analysis was employed to evaluate the levels of knowledge construction. Interactivity was measured by the number of posts and idea units. The findings revealed that perspective-widening comments facilitated students’ evaluation on the peer postings and brought up diverse perspectives, contributing to knowledge construction. While elaboration-encouraging comments led to high interactivity among students, praise-oriented comments had no significant effect on the frequency of interactivity.

This study investigates how scaffolding type and learners’ epistemological beliefs influence ill-structured problem solving. The independent variables in this study include the type of scaffolding (task-supported, self-monitoring) and the student's epistemological belief level (more advanced, less advanced). The dependent variables include three components of problem-solving skill (problem representation, solution development, monitoring and evaluation). The two-way multivariate analysis of variance results reveal that students in the self-monitoring scaffolding group earned higher scores on problem representation and solution development than those in the task-supported scaffolding group. Students with more advanced epistemological beliefs also earned higher scores on solution development and monitoring and evaluation than did those with less advanced epistemological beliefs. In addition, a significant interaction was found between scaffolding type and epistemological belief level. These findings suggest that students can benefit from self-monitoring scaffolding in web-based problem solving and that different types of scaffolding should be provided according to the student's epistemological belief level.

The purpose of this study was to examine how team process factors relate to students’ self-efficacy, attitude, and learning satisfaction in flipped learning. Since lone-wolf students tend to have little patience for the group work process and exhibit a lack of organizational commitment, this study also explores how students’ preferences for collaborative work or individual work affect their self-efficacy, attitude, and learning satisfaction in a flipped classroom. The participants were thirty-four undergraduate students enrolled in a consumer behavior course offered by a school of business at a university in Seoul, South Korea. Data were collected through surveys that measured team process, lone-wolf tendencies, self-efficacy, and attitude during the course. The results show the factor of team trust had a significant negative correlation with the lone-wolf measure but a positive correlation with responsibility, communication, cognitive and social competency, and self-efficacy. Moreover, communication and responsibility were positive predictors of self-efficacy and attitude. These results imply the usefulness of identifying critical variables of individual difference, such as lone-wolf tendencies, that could lead to both dysfunctional team process and low outcomes. Based on the results, this study provides implications for structuring and managing team projects in a higher education setting.