{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.021482277121374866, 'fraction_numerical': 0.008592910848549946, 'mean_word_length': 5.55868544600939, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Online Groups and Social Loafing: Understanding Student-Group Interactions

This paper presents an overview of the psycho-social aspects of social loafing and free riding in a traditional and distance learning environment. A brief literature review and summaries of frequently cited antecedents and their mitigating factors are reviewed for application by instructors, designers, and administrators in distance education. Distance learning administrative issues related to providing support to instructors to address the cited antecedents are discussed. As distance learning continues to grow in popularity with both traditional and non-traditional students, instructors and administrators are seeking ways to improve the online learning experience. One means of achieving this aim, and better prepare students for the corporate environment, is through the utilization of collaborative groups. Proponents of group work purport that students can learn valuable lessons regarding group communication and problem solving that are easily transferable to the work environment (Becker & Dwyer, 1998). Virtual groups are becoming a common component of the corporate structure. As work tasks become too complex for individual organizations or branches to manage, organizations are increasingly turning to virtual work groups to bridge the gap (Black, 2002). Working in groups is thought to significantly increase learning perceptions, problem solving skills, and help students achieve a higher level of learning than individual learning alone (Hiltz, Coppola, Rotter & Turoff, 1999). This is based on the theory of social facilitation . Social facilitation is simply the concept that people often perform better in the presence of others than alone (Cook, 2001). However, when discussing social facilitation, it is important to understand that the term has been used to summarize both the positive and negative aspects of groups. It is much more accurate to refer to social facilitation effects . Social facilitation effects refer to both social facilitation (better performance) and social impairment (worse performance) (Parks & Sanna, 1999). Although distance education courses are increasingly incorporating various versions of cooperative and collaborative learning exercises, these group activities do not always meet with great student appeal or result in the higher learning expectations of the designers. It is not unusual to find that group work is often much more popular with teachers than with students (Mason, 1998). Group work requires increased time and dependence on others which is often in direct conflict with student perceptions of distance education and online learning as being an environment for independent learning. In fact, group work presents a set of problems for students