4. Results
4.1 The impact of Google Docs on student-students interaction
The impact of Google Docs on student-student interaction was examined by asking participants to evaluate the influence of Google Docs on promoting 19 collaborative behaviors. Using mean and standard deviation for the total scores revealed that students held positive views towards Google Docs as a tool to enhance student-student interaction (M=67.16, SD=13.41). More specifically, the overall mean of participants’ responses for each behavior ranged from 2.38 to 4.19. This shows that the level of impact of Google Docs on student-student interaction fell in the moderate to high categories. Eleven items in this section were rated above 3.71 (high category). The eight remaining items were rated in the moderate category with mean scores ranging from 2.38 to 3.63. This finding indicates that the application has the power to promote some collaborative learning behaviors and it was less efficient in facilitating other behaviors. Acquiring knowledge and skills in an interesting way, comparing work with others and checking progress, learning from one another, and giving and receiving feedback were among the pedagogical activities most promoted by the application. These findings are shown in Table 3.
Consistently, and as presented in Table 4, the qualitative data revealed that Google Docs has the power to enhance student-student interaction through its various pedagogical functions.
However, participant reported that the way of implementing Google Docs and its nature hindered their student-student interaction. Six participants indicated that they were not satisfied with distribution of the collaborative work. For example a participant said: “There were no clear criteria for group members participating. Participation was on voluntary base. It was difficult to define each member’s effort and contribution.” Another participant stated: “It was easy for some members to depend on other members. In the assignment of creating lesson plans, we got 9 out of 10. Honestly. Some of the group members didn’t deserve this mark.”
In addition, five participants indicated that the nature of Google Docs did not promote their effective student-student interaction. This view is explained by a participant as follows: “Allowing everyone to edit the created product on her own and the big number of provided views complicated our job.”
Another participant concluded:
I was a member of an organized group. We agreed on everything. No one was allowed to edit the original document before discussing and approving the suggested change. It was not easy to always reach that goal. Some of us still lack teamwork skills, especially those who insist on their opinions.