This study addresses effects of social influence on students engaged in a cooperative online learning activity on two levels: At the class level, the communication of completion percentage updates that indicate continued and timely participation in the activity as the norm for the course is hypothesized to improve engagement outcomes. At the dyadic level, the use of cooperative partner messages highlighting the interdependent nature of the task is hypothesized to increase cooperative- and decrease competitive task perceptions, along with subsequent desirable effects such as epistemic conflict regulation; positive affect toward the partner; and increased intrinsic motivation, engagement, and task performance. Specific hypotheses tested in this study are derived from the theory of normative social behavior, social interdependence theory, and sociocognitive conflict theory, and related potential mechanisms and interactions with additional factors are discussed. To test the hypotheses and to explore related mechanisms, 193 undergraduate students were randomly assigned to four experimental conditions following a 2 x 2 experimental-control design. All participants engaged in a week-long asynchronous online constructive controversy that required them to exchange one post per day regarding a controversial topic with a partner, before filling out an online survey about the dependent variables of interest. Using a confederate approach, participants in two of these groups worked with a partner that used a set of cooperation-promoting partner messages such as statements highlighting the importance of considering arguments from both parties’ sides for the joint integration essay. Participants in the other two groups received the same substantive responses without these cooperative enhancements. The second experimental factor consisted of the presence/absence of daily messages within the activity site, indicating punctual participation by the majority of the group, such as “78% of participants have completed today’s step.”Results largely support social interdependence theory for the asynchronous mediated context examined here, in that cooperative partner messages increased perceived cooperation and reduced the preference to work on this kind of task individually. Unexpectedly, cooperative partner messages failed to significantly reduce competitive perceptions, but in line with expectations, they did produce increases in attraction, motivation, and engagement. Interestingly, such messages also raised perceived descriptive norms regarding others’ engagement in the learning activity, an unexpected but potentially beneficial side effect in the online learning context. The direct presentation of completion percentages did affect perceived descriptive norms in the expected direction as well. However, it also led to significant reductions in motivational variables such as interest in the activity and perceived competence, eradicating some of the beneficial effects produced by cooperative partner messages. Findings support the detrimental effects of upward comparisons in educational contexts and indicate caution regarding the use of explicit normative messages within asynchronous online activities. Interventions guiding online learners to be conscious of constructive and destructive feedback loops in the context of asynchronous computer mediated intellectual conflict as found in many cooperative learning tasks are supported, to deliberately restore some of the cooperative perceptions that previous work has shown to suffer under asynchronous mediated conditions.
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