Exploring nonverbal behavior and collaborative group engagement in online learning groups

Abstract

In learning groups, nonverbal behavior provides important information about socio-emotional processes, emotional states, and social relationships (Burgoon & Dunbar, 2018), and is therefore of utmost interest for the study of learning processes and group engagement - especially in online scenarios, where certain social cues are missing (cf. Trepte & Reinecke, 2018). The explorative study presented here addressed nonverbal behaviors of students as an indicator for the quality of collaborative group engagement (Sinha et al., 2015) in online learning groups. N=7 student groups were tasked with solving a hidden profile assignment via Zoom video conference. A code system was developed to capture students’ gestures and facial expressions and to analyze and explore them in terms of collaborative group engagement. Data analysis is currently underway. Preliminary results indicate that the frequency of nonverbal behaviors differs between groups and also between different types of nonverbal behavior (e.g., smiling, or braced chin). As a next step, this study will explore what these findings tell us about the differences and the synchronicity of nonverbal behaviors in relation to collaborative group engagement and how they relate to students’ verbal communication. The results of this study will contribute to the development of a system for assessing quality of collaborative group engagement and serve as a basis for real-time feedback to foster collaborative group engagement.