Online Behavior in Virtual Space: An Empirical Study on Helping

Although previous studies have acknowledged that helping behavior has many potential benefits, little research has aimed at understanding which factors would possibly enhance helping behaviors among team members in CSCL environment. Accordingly, this study was intended to identify underlying factors leading learners to collaborate in virtual CSCL settings. A total of 100 undergraduate students enrolled in organizational behavior course participated in this study. Participants were divided into 20 work teams and were asked to collaborate with team members to successfully complete their team report on time. This study corroborated that social identity was a critical preceding antecedent of the engendering of learners' helping behaviors. According to our empirical results, learners strongly identifying themselves with the team perceived a high sense of norms of collaboration and a strong trust in team members, which in turn would result in the delivery of more helping behaviors. Implications for educators and instructors to enhance helping behaviors among team members in CSCL environment are also discussed in this paper.