Redesigning the classroom environment to enhance students’ collaborative learning activities

Studies found that complex knowledge can be learned more effectively when students are engaged in a collaborative classroom environment. Therefore, conventional classroom learning should be redesigned into collaborative learning activities and study how students interact. In this study, Laurillard’s conversational framework was used to redesign collaborative university classroom environment which centered at developing a multimedia project. Student comments and interaction were collected from open-ended questions and web 2.0 tools which were used in the interaction process, before analyzed by using Cecez-Kecmanovic and Webb’s (2000) Communicative Model of Collaborative Learning (CMCL). Result showed that Laurillard’s conversational framework was effective in redesigning the classroom to capture and reflect collaborative learning activities, and that the CMCL framework was a viable instrument in analyzing students’ interaction in the collaborative learning activities. A flow diagram was developed to illustrate the pattern of conversation from Laurillard’s conversation framework and the forms of teacher-students’ interaction.