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In order to optimize students' peer feedback processes, this study investigates how an instructional intervention in the peer assessment process can have a beneficial effect on students' performance in a wiki environment in first-year higher education. The main aim was to study the effect of integrating a peer feedback template with a varying structuring degree. The present study involved three conditions: a no structure, a basic structure and an elaborate structure condition. Due to a clear hierarchical structure, in which over time (level 1), 168 students (level 2) are nested within 37 groups (level 3), multilevel analysis was performed to examine the effect of time, student and group level influences on students' peer feedback quality and product scores. The results revealed that both peer feedback quality and product scores increase significantly for all conditions over time, after multiple practice occasions. In addition, after several practice occasions, significant differences were found between the conditions in both peer feedback (elaborate higher than no structure) and product scores (elaborate and basic higher than no structure). Building on this, limitations, directions for future research and practical implications are presented.

The Internet is an evolving medium that continuously presents new functionalities. Accordingly, also children's Internet usage changes continuously. This requires being vigilant about related Internet risk behavior and safe Internet use. The present article presents a structured overview of Internet risks and summarizes approaches to foster safe Internet behavior. Based on a long-term cross-sectional study, Internet usage of young children has been researched. The focus is on contact risks and content risks. Based on the analysis of survey data from 10000 children, trends in their (un)safe Internet usage are studied in the years 2005-2006, 2007-2008, and 2008-2009. An Unsafe Internet Usage Index (UIUI) is calculated. The average results point at a rather low level of unsafe Internet usage. But these average results hide between-subject differences and a number of children clearly reflect risky unsafe Internet usage. Also, no consistent reduction in unsafe Internet behavior is being observed over the years. Parental and teacher control hardly increase, and hardly seem to impact the level of unsafe Internet behavior. Considering a number of limitations of the present study, directions for future research are discussed.

Next to available data about actual Internet use of young children at home, most research especially focuses on the threats and opportunities about active Internet usage. Limited empirical research focuses on the role and impact of parents in this context. In the present study, Internet parenting styles are defined and operationalized to study the impact on actual Internet usage of children at home. Two dimensions are distinguished in Internet parenting styles: parental control and parental warmth. Based on a survey, involving 533 parents from children in primary schools, this Internet usage was studied from the perspective of Internet parenting styles. Results point at high Internet access at home. As to the parenting styles, we observe a dominance of the authoritative parenting style (59.4%). The styles differ when controlling for parent gender, educational background and age. Parenting styles are also linked to level of parent Internet usage, Internet attitude and Internet experience. Parenting styles also significantly affect child Internet usage. The highest child usage level is perceived when parents adopt a permissive parenting style; the lowest level is observed when parents adopt an authoritarian Internet parenting style. The variables Internet parenting style, parent Internet behavior, and parent educational background significantly predict Internet usage of children at home (R[superscript 2] = 0.44). Theoretical and practical implications are discussed and directions for future research. (Contains 1 table and 4 figures.)

This article examines the impact of the introduction of roles and the added value of self-assessment on students' level of knowledge construction in online asynchronous discussions in a first-year university course in instructional sciences. Students' postings in 20 discussion groups were used as the research data for this study. All messages, submitted during the 12-week discussion period and comprising four discussion themes of 3 weeks each, were analysed. Repeated-measures multilevel modeling was adopted to analyse the data from the content analysis. The results point at a significant positive impact of assigning roles to students. However, this positive impact depends on the moment of the introduction of the roles. Higher levels of social knowledge construction were found in discussion groups where roles were introduced right at the start of the discussions and faded out towards the end. The results further indicate that self-assessment has no significant added value.

The present study focuses on the use of thinking types as a possible way to structure university students' discourse in asynchronous discussion groups and consequently promote their learning. More specifically, the aim of the study is to determine how requiring students to label their contributions by means of De Bono's (1991) thinking hats affects the ongoing critical thinking processes reflected in the discussion. The results suggest that tagging thinking types significantly promotes critical thinking in general and the critical thinking processes during problem identification and problem exploration, in particular. More specifically, it appears that requiring students to reflect on the type of thinking in their contributions stimulates more indepth and focused contributions and, more frequent input of new problem-related information and new ideas for discussion. (Contains 4 tables.)

The research reported in the current article studies the impact of learning in asynchronous discussion groups on students' final exam scores and levels of knowledge construction. Multilevel analyses were applied to uncover the specific influence of student, group and task variables. The results indicate that the impact of student characteristics on both dependent variables is of higher significance than characteristics of the discussion group students are allocated to. With regard to levels of knowledge construction, task characteristics also appear to be of importance. With regard to final exam scores the analyses reveal a significant impact from student learning style, attitude towards task-based learning, the number of student contributions and the level of knowledge construction in these contributions. No significant group characteristics were observed. As to levels of knowledge construction, the analyses revealed that the amount of contributions and the attitude towards the online learning environment are significant predictors. The intensity of the interaction in a group had a significant impact. As to task characteristics, significant differences were found between consecutive themes. These disappeared when taking into account task complexity. (Contains 5 figures and 6 tables.)

Research in the field of Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) is based on a wide variety of methodologies. In this paper, we focus upon content analysis, which is a technique often used to analyze transcripts of asynchronous, computer mediated discussion groups in formal educational settings. Although this research technique is often used, standards are not yet established. The applied instruments reflect a wide variety of approaches and differ in their level of detail and the type of analysis categories used. Further differences are related to a diversity in their theoretical base, the amount of information about validity and reliability, and the choice for the unit of analysis. This article presents an overview of different content analysis instruments, building on a sample of models commonly used in the CSCL-literature. The discussion of 15 instruments results in a number of critical conclusions. There are questions about the coherence between the theoretical base and the operational translation of the theory in the instruments. Instruments are hardly compared or contrasted with one another. As a consequence the empirical base of the validity of the instruments is limited. The analysis is rather critical when it comes to the issue of reliability. The authors put forward the need to improve the theoretical and empirical base of the existing instruments in order to promote the overall quality of CSCL-research.