Threaded Forums and Social Annotation in Higher Education: A Comparison in Supporting Collaborative Knowledge Construction

This paper documents a comparison between two collaborative knowledge construction practices carried out in a post-graduate course. A quasi-experimental study was conducted to analyse and compare the interactions among students in Moodle threaded forums and the Perusall social annotation system. It has been investigated if and how the different functionalities and affordances of the two environments influence student participation and knowledge construction processes. After a brief explanation of Perusall’s functionalities and the activities accomplished by the students, this paper presents a quantitative and content analysis of students’ interactions. Results show that the affordances of the two environments led students to different patterns of participation. In Moodle threaded forums, discussions were more oriented to general topics of the course and were intended to express opinions, whereas in the Perusall social annotation system there has been more focus on fostering comprehension about specific issues of study material. Social annotation systems, therefore, could be a productive environment to support students’ study.