Writing Together: Online Synchronous Collaboration in Middle School

Abstract

The authors showcase the use of DocuViz, an information visualization tool, as a means to support middle school students’ online synchronous collaborative writing. The purpose of this study was to explore writing outcomes when students write in groups and independently. Providing students with a tool to help them understand their individual contributions to a collaboratively written Google Doc may be one reason why group‐written essays were significantly longer and received significantly higher rubric scores when compared with the independently written essays. Results also indicated that group writing had a positive impact on later independent essay writing. Student survey results reflect positive reactions to online collaborative writing. The authors conclude with a discussion of the theoretical contributions that this study makes to New Literacies Studies and provide guidelines for teachers interested in supporting students’ writing development through technology‐enhanced strategies that position students as partners in the writing process.

Supporting Online Synchronous Collaborative Writing in the Secondary Classroom

“…This metacognitive skill, however, requires scaffolding during more dynamic forms of writing. Krishnan et al's (2018) study of a free tool, and Chrome add-on, for determining collaboration patterns in Google Docs (i.e., DocuViz) suggested that middle school students value this information when engaging in online SCW. DocuViz is a text-mining tool that produces a visual history chart of the emerging Google document across different timepoints.…”

“…Olson & Olson, 1996). In addition, online SCW that makes use of DocuViz supports students' later independent writing (Krishnan et al, 2018). Mr. Cusimano's students also reported that DocuViz encouraged them to write more and provided contribution transparency and accountability.…”

“…Although it is important to recognize the many ways that students contribute during online SCW, research has indicated that balanced participation and active editing are associated with more effective writing. For example, eighth-grade students who engaged in balanced participation and active editing using Google Docs wrote source-based argumentative essays with better content, textual evidence, and organization compared with students who wrote independently (Krishnan et al, 2018). Educators can empower groups to better understand their writing FEATURE ARTICLE contributions, particularly during revision by using tools such as AuthorViz, a data visualization tool like DocuViz, that color-codes each writer's contribution in a shared Google Doc.…”

“…Encourage students to use DocuViz during online synchronous collaborative writing to learn about how they are contributing to their group's text (Krishnan et al, 2018). Provide students with multiple opportunities to participate (i.e., verbal/online discussion, providing/resolving digital comments, dictating; Zhu, 2001).…”

“…He has taught collaborative writing using Google Docs and other digital tools since 2015. The examples provided here are derived from his classroom (and also examined in Krishnan, Cusimano, Wang, & Yim, 2018).…”