The Interaction and Effects of Perceived Cultural Diversity, Group Size, Leadership, and Collaborative Learning Systems: An Experimental Study

To understand the circumstances under which the use of collaborative learning systems would enhance learning efficiency, a laboratory experiment with a 2×2×2 factorial design was conducted to investigate the interaction and effects of perceived cultural diversity, group size, and leadership on learners’ performances and satisfaction with process. Contrary to an expected negative relationship between perceived cultural diversity and performance, a positive relationship emerged as a result of leadership. Leadership lowered learners’ satisfaction with the process in perceived homogeneous groups (as compared to perceived heterogeneous groups) and smaller groups (as compared to larger groups).