The positive effects of cooperative learning are well-documented in face-to-face environments, but its efficacy in asynchronous online environments remains unclear. Recent experimental research suggests that, compared to face-to-face and synchronous versions of cooperative learning, motivation, achievement, and cooperative perceptions all decrease under asynchronous online conditions (e.g., Peterson & Roseth, 2016; Roseth et al., 2011; Saltarelli & Roseth, 2014). This raises questions about how and why this occurs. The purpose of this dissertation study was to clarify this issue by testing whether asynchrony decreases reciprocity, operationalized as promotive interaction and trustworthiness, and moderates the association between cooperative goals and cooperative outcomes. More specifically, this study used a repeated-measures experimental-control design to compare the effects of two types of media (synchronous and asynchronous text) on two reciprocal processes (trustworthiness and promotive interaction) associated with cooperative learning and its outcomes (perceived interdependence, peer relationships, psychological health). Results indicate that asynchrony affects promotive interaction in a way that disrupts the processes that occur in cooperative learning. Results inform theory by providing a more fine-grained analysis of the effect of asynchrony on social interdependence, demonstrating that the positive relationships found between variables in face-to-face cooperative learning are also found in asynchronous cooperative learning, although in some cases, asynchrony changed the way they relate to each other over time by decreasing the relationship over time. Results also inform practice by indicating that the effects of asynchrony generalize to an actual online course in which students work together on multiple cooperative discussions over a semester in a cooperative discussion activity that uses outcomes interdependence.
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