Jeitziner, Loris TizianPaneth, LisaRack, OliverZahn, Carmen2024-09-262024-09-262024-08-141664-1078https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1347073https://irf.fhnw.ch/handle/11654/47052https://doi.org/10.26041/fhnw-10050In the future of higher education, student learning will become more virtual and group-oriented, and this new reality of academic learning comes with challenges. Positive social interactions in virtual synchronous student learning groups are not self-evident but need extra support. To successfully support positive social interactions, the underlying group processes, such as collaborative group engagement, need to be understood in detail, and the important question arises: How can collaborative group engagement be assessed in virtual group learning settings? A promising methodological approach is the observation of students’ non-verbal behavior, for example, in videoconferences. In an exploratory field study, we observed the non-verbal behavior of psychology students in small virtual synchronous learning groups solving a complex problem via videoconferencing. The groups were videorecorded to analyze possible relations between their non-verbal behaviors and to rate the quality of collaborative group engagementenCSCLnon-verbal behaviorvirtual synchronous learningquality of collaborative group engagementvirtual learning groupshigher education150 - Psychologie370 - Erziehung, Schul- und Bildungswesen600 - Technik01A - Beitrag in wissenschaftlicher Zeitschrift1347073