As part of the DACH Early-Career Academy, which will take place this year from February 23 to 27 in Leipzig, Sabine Schermeier from the CAIS research program “Educational Technologies & Artificial Intelligence” will present partial results from her second doctoral study. These focus on the impact of group size on hybrid collaboration in small groups. Her presentation will take place on February 24 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. in House 3, Room 223.
About the Study
Hybrid small-group work, in which students collaborate on-site with participants joining online, is gaining importance due to its potential to offer flexible and inclusive learning opportunities. However, the benefits of collaborative learning do not always fully materialize in hybrid settings. Initial studies show that online participants often experience lower affective engagement, feel isolated, and are less socially integrated. Other research, however, indicates that hybrid settings, compared to fully remote scenarios where all participants join online, provide advantages in terms of perceived social presence and connectedness.
The current state of research is limited and inconsistent, making it valuable to examine potential factors influencing hybrid collaboration more closely. One factor that has received little attention so far is group size. The present study investigates how group size affects the quality of hybrid collaboration in a higher education context. A total of 125 students worked in groups of three or five on a complex problem-solving task and then evaluated the quality of collaboration with respect to their socio-affective experience and collaborative interactions. In addition, the quality of the group work products was assessed by external raters using a standardized rating scheme.
About the DACH Early-Career Academy
The DACH Early-Career Academy targets young researchers at universities and universities of teacher education who are at the beginning of their academic careers in empirical educational research. Participants include both doctoral students (Prae-Doc) and researchers in the first two years post-PhD (Post-Doc). The academy provides a space for presentations, exchange, and workshops covering a wide range of interdisciplinary topics in teaching, learning, and educational research.