Summary of Results

skills. Furthermore, conducting ANCOVAs on each single dimension of collaboration skills revealed a positive effect of the collaboration script on all three dimensions of collaboration skills. Also, results of comparing means of the students in the CSO condition and students in the DWS condition supported this hypothesis. The collaboration script encouraged the students to ask more high level questions, give more high level answers, and engage in more high level discussions supported with comments and justifications compared to students in the control condition. The second hypothesisposited that the students who had learned with incomplete concept maps would collaborate more skilfully than the students who had learned without any treatment. First, conducting MANCOVA showed that the overall effect of incomplete concept maps on collaboration skills was non-significant. Moreover, using ANCOVAs to identify effect of incomplete concept maps on each single dimension of collaboration skills showed significant effect of incomplete concept maps only on high level answers. Three Post-hoc-tests (LSD) analyses were conducted to test this hypothesis by comparing means of the students in the ICMO condition and students in the control condition regarding all three dimensions of the collaboration skills. The results showed that there was no statistically significant difference between the ICMO condition and the DWS condition with respect to all three dimensions of the collaboration skills. Overall, incomplete concept maps could not facilitate the acquisition of collaboration skills compared to the control condition. Therefore, this hypothesis was not accepted. The third hypothesis expected that the students who had learned with the collaboration script and incomplete concept maps together would show higher collaboration skills compared to all other conditions. Results of MANCOVA showed that no overall interaction effect between both treatments on collaboration skills can be found. In addition, results of ANCOVAs on all three dimensions of collaboration skills confirmed that the interaction effect on collaboration skills did not reach statistical significance. Results of the Post-hoc-tests (LSD) analysis partially supported this hypothesis, since the students in the CSICM condition outperformed all other three conditions only regarding the frequencies of high level reactions to answers. With respect to high level questions and high level answers, the students who had participated in the combined condition outperformed only the students in the ICMO and the DWS conditions, but not the students in the CSO condition. There was no statistically significant difference between the students in the CSICM condition and those in the CSO conditions.

The third research question of this study was: To what extent do a collaboration script and incomplete concept maps as well as their combination affect the quality of published websites in an online DBL environment? Results indicated that:

The first hypothesis predicted that the collaboration script would not be able to improve the quality of published websites when compared to the control condition. However, an ANCOVA analysis showed that the collaboration script had a positive effect on the quality of published websites. Moreover, comparing mean scores of the students in the CSO condition and the DWS condition showed that a slightly significant difference. Therefore, the first hypothesis was not supported. The second hypothesis posited that the students who had

learned with incomplete concept maps would not be able to publish high quality websites compared to the students who had learned without any treatments. The results of an ANCOVA analysis revealed that there was no significant effect of incomplete concept maps on the quality of published websites. Moreover, the results of the Post-hoc-tests (LSD) analysis did not show any significant difference between the students in the ICMO condition and those in the DWS condition. Thus, this hypothesis was supported. The third hypothesis predicted that the students who learned with both treatments together would publish higher quality websites compared to students in all other three conditions. Results of an ANCOVA showed that there was no interaction effect between the collaboration script and incomplete concept maps on the quality of published websites. The results of the Post-hoc-tests (LSD) showed that the students in the CSICM conditions could publish higher quality websites compared to the students in all other three conditions. Thus, this hypothesis was confirmed.

Effects of Collaboration Script and Incomplete Concept Maps on Individual Learning Outcomes

The fourth research question of this study was: To what extent do a collaboration script and incomplete concept maps as well as their combination affect the acquisition of domain-specific knowledge related to the design and building of websites in an online DBL environment?

Regarding the first hypothesis, it was predicted that the collaboration script would enable the students to acquire more domain-specific knowledge than the students who learned without any treatments. An ANCOVA analysis revealed a positive effect of the collaboration script on the acquisition of domain-specific knowledge. Moreover, investigating the differences between means scores of the students in the CSO condition and those in the DWS condition showed that the students who had learned with the collaboration script were slightly higher than the students in the control condition. Therefore, this hypothesis was supported. The second hypothesis expected that students who had learned with incomplete concept maps would show higher domain-specific knowledge than those in the unstructured condition. The results of an ANCOVA analysis showed a significant effect of incomplete concept maps on the acquisition of factual knowledge. Moreover, the Post-hoc-tests (LSD) analysis indicated that the students in the ICMO condition outperformed those in the DWS condition. Thus, this hypothesis was supported. The third hypothesis posited that the combination between the collaboration script and incomplete concept maps would show higher domain-specific knowledge compared to all other three conditions. Results of an ANCOVA showed no interaction effect between both treatments, whereas the results of the Post-hoc-tests (LSD) analysis also supported this hypothesis. The students in the CSICM condition acquired domain-specific knowledge related to design and building websites more than students from all other conditions.

The fifth research question of this study was: To what extent do a collaboration script and incomplete concept maps as well as their combination affect the acquisition of domain-specific skills related to the design and building of websites in an online DBL environment?

The first hypothesis predicted that the students who had been provided with collaboration script would show higher domain-specific skills compared to the students in the control condition. The results of the analyses supported this hypothesis, since an ANCOVA indicated that there was a main effect for collaboration script on students’ acquisition of domain-specific skills. The students in the CSO condition were substantially higher than the students in the control condition. Overall, students in the CSO condition could obviously practice web design more skilfully than students in the DWS condition. The second hypothesis was that the students who had learned with incomplete concept maps would show higher domain-specific skills compared to the control condition. An ANCOVA analysis showed a positive main effect of incomplete concept maps on the acquisition of domain-specific skills related to design and building websites. Furthermore, Post-hoc-tests (LSD) indicated that students in the ICMO condition performed better than students from the DWS condition Therefore, the second hypothesis was confirmed. Regarding the third hypothesis, the students who had been provided with a collaboration script and incomplete concept maps would show higher domain-specific skills more than those who had learned without the both treatments. The results of an ANCOVA showed that the interaction between the collaboration script and incomplete concept maps did not reach statistical significance. The results of the Post-hoc-tests (LSD) analysis showed that students who had learned with both the collaboration script and incomplete concept maps were better able to show different web design skills than those from all three other conditions. Thus also the third hypothesis was confirmed.