Abstract:
Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) is
a new trend in educational
sciences. This study investigates how knowledge sha
ring and transferring can be
facilitated by using CSCL in a problem-solving sett
ing. Intervention of research is
education regarding Sustainable Water Resources Mana
gement (SWRM) by Computer-
Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL). The purpos
e of this research was to
determine whether change of knowledge was accomplis
hed after utilization of CSCL in
agricultural MSc. and PhD. students of Science and
Research Branch University, Ahwaz,
Iran. Education by CSCL was accomplished in a two-w
eek period. As a part of the
experimental design, 173 university students were r
andomly assigned and divided to four
groups. The first group with 43 students was labele
d pretest-posttest treatment group (E).
The second group, with 44 students, labeled pretest
-posttest control group (C
1
), only
received face to face education, which was known as
the control group. Thus, we
compared the effect of the treatment between the fi
rst and second group. The third group
as the posttest-only treatment group (C
2
) received the CSCL, with 44 students, and the
fourth group as posttest-only control group (C
3
) with 42 students did not receive the
treatment. The results showed that there was signif
icant difference between posttests
knowledge score of C
2
and C
3
, and E and C
1
. Also, there was a significant difference
between pretest and posttest in the experimental gr
oup. This result indicated the impact
of treatment (CSCL) on the knowledge level of stude
nts. In addition, F-test analysis
showed there were significant differences among pos
ttests in all groups.
Keywords
: Collaborative learning, Computer-supported collab
orative learning, Solomon
four group designs
