Mass Collaboration as an Emerging Paradigm for Education? Theories, Cases, and Research Methods

Abstract

Web 2.0 makes many different forms of mass collaboration possible. The book we introduce here (Cress, Moskaliuk, & Jeong, in press) deals with mass collaboration in the context of education. This is a new and emerging research field that first needs some clarification and definitions. In this introductory chapter, we propose that mass collaboration in education is characterized in terms of the following four aspects: (1) formal aspects, such as the number of learners involved, the tools used, and the creation of artifacts; (2) interactive aspects such as participation, coordination, cooperation, and collaboration; (3) aspects regarding a certain spirit exhibited in mass collaboration; and (4) learning-related aspects regarding where the learning happens. The book’s objective is to present the current state of research on mass collaboration in education. We organized the 18 contributions from different labs and researchers into three parts. The chapters in the first part introduce theoretical approaches to mass collaboration. Cognitive approaches as well as a systemic and a stigmergic approach are included here. The chapters in the second part present empirical work that is accomplished with specific tools or environments for mass collaboration, for example, Wikipedia, MOOCs (massive online open courses), citizen science, e-participation, or the platform Scratch. The chapters in the third part deal with research methods and give insights into the specific challenges that occur in the analysis of data about the mass collaboration processes. Methods such as natural language processing or network analysis are presented in this third part. After briefly summarizing each of the 18 chapters, we conclude by identifying four research challenges and future directions: (1) integrating the multifaceted concepts and theories that are currently being discussed with regard to mass collaboration, (2) elaborating the notion of the special spirit of mass collaboration and its relation to learning, (3) exploring mass collaboration as a means to overcome the digital divide, and (4) developing and applying adequate research methods that can deal with the vast amount of data resulting from mass collaboration.