PONE-D-21-31362Blended and collaborative learning: Case of a multicultural graduate classroom in TaiwanPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Chuang,

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Fu Lee Wang

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: N/A

Reviewer #2: N/A

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: This study presents a blended and collaborative learning method and discuss its potential as a viable learning approach for graduate classrooms with culturally-diverse students. The topic is interesting. In my view, the findings of this study can provide important insights into instructional practice on blended and collaborative learning. I only have several minor concerns to be addressed.

First, I suggest the authors to highlight more about the importance and significance of blended learning and collaborative learning in the field of educational technology, as evidenced in reviews on educational technology, see the followings:

Detecting latent topics and trends in educational technologies over four decades using structural topic modeling: A retrospective of all volumes of Computers & Education

Fifty years of British Journal of Educational Technology: A topic modeling based bibliometric perspective

It is suggested to include more empirical studies focusing on blended and collaborative learning to highlight the significance of your research. For example,

Kong, S. C., Cheung, W. M. Y., & Zhang, G. (2021). Evaluation of an artificial intelligence literacy course for university students with diverse study backgrounds. Computers and Education: Artificial Intelligence, 100026.

Research questions can be more specific, for example, RQ2, what does “knowledge” means?

What are the limitations of this study?

Finally, double-check both definition and usage of acronyms: every acronym should be defined only once (at the first occurrence) and always used afterwards (except for the abstract). There are some mistakes in this aspect. For example, the use of CoI and community of inquiry.

Reviewer #2: This paper describes an implementation of a blended and collaborative learning approach in a multicultural graduate course, intending to demonstrate such an implementation can encourage cooperative learning among graduate students of different cultural backgrounds. The paper evaluates the learning outcomes using the Community of Inquiry framework. In general, the paper delivers a teaching and learning event with a theoretical foundation and a well-constructed learning process. Thus, the paper is of interest to the journal and researchers in the relevant field.

The authors can consider the following suggestions:

1. Organization:

1) It will be better if the authors number the sections and subsections. The current format without numbering may make the audience get lost.

2) Line 288. It is confusing to entitle this section as "Results," as it is more about the teaching and learning settings and some basic statistics. The authors can consider sperate this section accordingly to make the manuscript logically intact.

3) Another limitation of the manuscript is that the description of blended and collaborative learning in the current "Results" section is not well-written: the content is too scattered without a good connection, and the writing is not good enough to present a holistic image. The authors are highly suggested modifying this section to make everything straightforward. For example, authors can consider writing a general description to start this section, highlighting the logic and how different subsections are connected.

4) The "Results" part does not discuss how this work addresses from a multicultural perspective and impacts the learning of students from minor ethical groups, which is emphasized a lot in the abstract and introduction. Please consider adding discussions regarding the multicultural setting into the manuscript.

As to the claim about multicultural setting, more literature can be added to support the hypothesis. And is there any quantitative results to reveal the effect of the proposed BCL setting on both local students and foreign students? I think it would be interesting if these aspects are discussed.

2. Writing:

The writing quality of this paper can be improved. The authors are suggested to make thorough proofreading.

Typos:

Line 100: "equity" to "equality"

Line 133: "others" to "others' "

Line 140: "The" to "the"

Line 298: "exercisew" to "exercises"

and other places.

Especially, the paper does not well follow the citation format. For example, multiple in-line citations miss the period sign "." in "et al."

As to the use of acronyms, once a short form is defined, please use the acronym throughout the manuscript, like "BCL". The term "Community of Inquiry" is defined as "CoI", but another form "COI" is used multiple times. Please stick with one form and revise the other one. And "Q and A" may not be a formal usage. Please consider using "Q&A" instead.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Blended and collaborative learning: Case of a multicultural graduate classroom in Taiwan

PONE-D-21-31362R1

Dear Dr. Chuang,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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If your institution or institutions have a press office, please notify them about your upcoming paper to help maximize its impact. If they’ll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team as soon as possible -- no later than 48 hours after receiving the formal acceptance. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org.

Kind regards,

Fu Lee Wang

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: The authors have addressed all my previous concerns. I feel the current version can be accepted for publication.

Reviewer #2: I would like to thank the authors for their effort on revising the manuscript and addressing my concerns. The revised version shows significant improvement compared with the previous version. The current version can be considered for publication.

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No