Online Cooperative Learning and Key Interpsychological Mechanisms: An Exploratory Study through the Analysis of the Discourse Content

This research analyses the cooperative learning process in three groups applying the case study technique in a virtual university asynchronous communication context. The exploratory study was performed within a subject taught at a Master in e-learning programme. Based on a review of the theory and the current status of research, we delineate the concept of virtual cooperative learning and the main interpsychological mechanisms accounting for its effectiveness. Through a case study methodology and by means of discourse analysis, we identify the main interpsychological mechanisms involved in peer cooperation—positive interdependence, construction of meaning and psychosocial relations. We categorise the types of language involved in the process of joint construction of meaning all throughout the sequence of cooperative learning being studied.