Analyzing the Effects of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning on Agricultural Students Knowledge regarding Sustainable Water Resources Management: Case Study of Iran

Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) is a new trend in educational sciences. This study investigates how knowledge sharing and transferring can be facilitated by using CSCL in a problem-solving setting. Intervention of research is education regarding Sustainable Water Resources Management (SWRM) by Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL). The purpose of this research was to determine whether change of knowledge was accomplished after utilization of CSCL in agricultural MSc. and PhD. students of Science and Research Branch University, Ahwaz, Iran. Education by CSCL was accomplished in a two-week period. As a part of the experimental design, 173 university students were randomly assigned and divided to four groups. The first group with 43 students was labeled pretest-posttest treatment group (E). The second group, with 44 students, labeled pretest-posttest control group (C-1), only received face to face education, which was known as the control group. Thus, we compared the effect of the treatment between the first and second group. The third group as the posttest-only treatment group (C-2) received the CSCL, with 44 students, and the fourth group as posttest-only control group (C-3) with 42 students did not receive the treatment. The results showed that there was significant difference between posttests knowledge score of C-2 and C-3, and E and C-1. Also, there was a significant difference between pretest and posttest in the experimental group. This result indicated the impact of treatment (CSCL) on the knowledge level of students. In addition, F-test analysis showed there were significant differences among posttests in all groups.