Collaborative Learning Flow Patterns Research Articles

Student and teacher impact on the use of telepresence classrooms

AbstractHybrid learning environments saw significant growth due to the COVID-19 pandemic but persist beyond it, one example is the telepresence classroom. This classroom allows the connection of two classrooms in distance locations into a singular one. The technology in a telepresence classroom includes a camera, multiple projectors, microphones, and speakers to emulate a single learning space despite the distance, potentially overcoming some of the challenges presented by hybrid settings. However, the telepresence classroom presents technological and logistical complexities for the teachers. Thus, it is essential to understand the impact on the teacher agency, as well as on the workload of both students and teachers. Therefore, two collaborative learning sessions were conducted, utilising the collaborative learning flow pattern (jigsaw) in the telepresence classroom. From these experiments, the teacher and students workload was measured using the NASA-TXL questionnaire and supplemented with the Epistemic Network Analysis model to pinpoint key actions impacting the workload. The teacher agency was also assessed with another questionnaire. Finally, an interview was conducted with the teacher to gather more insights regarding the workload and agency. Results revealed a teacher workload score of 65.33 and 67.33, while student averages stood at 49.03 and 58.65 on a 0-100 scale. The data collected also served to identify potential factors influencing the workload, such as available time or the need for increased effort. Potential factors affecting teacher agency, such as decision-making challenges and tool limitations, were also identified.

Smart Groups: A system to orchestrate collaboration in hybrid learning environments. A simulation study

COVID-19 has brought new hybrid learning environments with some students in the classroom and some others online, synchronously, due to the needs of social distancing. These new hybrid learning environments pose new challenges, for example for group collaboration. This paper presents Smart Groups, a system aimed at helping teachers to orchestrate collaboration in hybrid learning environments and assesses its usability and usefulness through a simulation study. Smart Groups identifies the students that are in the classroom and online, automates the creation of groups (recommending collaborative learning flow patterns to teachers and considering the previous work done by students), supports the communication among students and the use of additional tools and resources for collaboration, and helps maintain the safety distance among the students who are in the classroom. The usability of Smart Groups has been assessed through a mock-up by 60 users (41 students and 19 teachers) with the system usability scale (SUS) obtaining good results (mean = 75.47, standard deviation = 14.95, median = 76.25). A subgroup (10 teachers out of 19) carried out follow-up interviews using the technology acceptance model (TAM) and highlighted the usefulness of Smart Groups to orchestrate collaboration in hybrid learning environments. Implications for practice or policy: Smart Groups supports teachers in the orchestration of groups in hybrid learning environments. Smart Groups facilitates group coordination and communication among students. Smart Groups helps maintain the safety distance.

Deconstructing orchestration load: comparing teacher support through mirroring and guiding

Under the notion of “CSCL scripts”, different pedagogical models for structuring and supporting collaboration in the classroom have been proposed. We report on a practical experience with scripts based on the Pyramid collaborative learning flow pattern supported by a specific classroom tool and a teacher-facing dashboard that implements mirroring and guiding support. The input data of our analysis stems from recordings of classroom interactions guided by several teachers using the PyramidApp with different levels of teaching support. For the analysis, we introduce a specific coding scheme enabling a quantitative comparison and deeper analysis using epistemic network analysis. The results show that the guiding support enabled teachers to perform more orchestration actions, more targeted interactions and to make more announcements to the class (regarding time, phase transitions, and students’ activity participation) when compared to the mirroring support. Teachers’ actionable differences observed under the mirroring and guiding support directed us to deconstruct the notion of orchestration load into different facets and to discuss how different support provisions correspond to the different facets of orchestration load.

Sustaining learning design and pedagogical planning in CSCL

This paper tackles the issue of learning design and pedagogical planning in the context of computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL). In this sector, we witness the same variety of approaches and tools that we find in the technology-enhanced learning (TEL) research field. In particular, in the CSCL context, notions such as “Collaborative Learning Flow Patterns” (CLFP) or “collaborative scripts” have been used to describe and/or run online collaborative learning activities and, consequently, tools have been implemented to reify these concepts and visualise the designs. Despite the differences, most of the existing tools support the representation of learning designs that are already “in the designer’s mind”, while fewer tools specifically aim to provide guidance and support to CSCL designers in the early phases of the design process, that is, when they have to make critical decisions concerning the educational approach, the tools to be used, and the ways to engage the target population. This paper, while focusing on this gap in CSCL research, proposes a unifying model, aimed at supporting pedagogical planning and decision making in the CSCL design process based on the interplay of four model components: Task, Teams, Time and Technology.Keywords: computer-supported collaborative learning; design process; 4Ts model; learning design(Published: 16 September 2013)Citation: Research in Learning Technology Supplement 2013, 21: 17585 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/rlt.v21i0.17585

SOS: Orchestrating collaborative activities across digital and physical spaces using wearable signaling devices

Carrying out collaborative learning activities (supported by technologies or not) typically involves the coordination of multiple participants, in their dynamic assignment to groups and roles and in the distribution of resources and tools to specific group or individuals. While the mechanisms required to address these coordination aspects in digital educational spaces have been largely studied, less research has been conducted on orchestration support for facilitating this coordination in (technology-enhanced) physical spaces, such as the classroom or the playground. This paper presents the Signal Orchestration System (SOS), a system that augments the physical environment with digital signals indicating orchestration aspects. The SOS facilitates its integration with digital educational spaces to allow transitioning activities from digital to physical spaces. The paper describes the SOS system and its underlying architecture through a functional prototype that has been developed to show its feasibility and to enable its evaluation in authentic situations. The main components of the prototype include a Manager, where orchestration visual and auditory signals are configured, changed on the fly and transmitted, and three different designs of Wearable Signaling Devices, which are carried by participants and render the orchestration signals. The prototype has been used in two different experiments in the context of a real course applying adaptations of the well-known Jigsaw collaborative learning flow pattern. The results show that the SOS enables a flexible dynamic orchestration of the collaborative activities.

Discovering the campus together: A mobile and computer-based learning experience

One of the most relevant difficulties faced by first-year undergraduate students is to settle into the educational environment of universities. This paper presents a case study that proposes a computer-assisted collaborative experience designed to help students in their transition from high school to university. This is done by facilitating their first contact with the campus and its services, the university community, methodologies and activities. The experience combines individual and collaborative activities, conducted in and out of the classroom, structured following the Jigsaw Collaborative Learning Flow Pattern. A specific environment including portable technologies with network and computer applications has been developed to support and facilitate the orchestration of a flow of learning activities into a single integrated learning setting. The result is a Computer Supported Collaborative Blended Learning scenario that has been evaluated with first-year university students of the degrees of Software and Audiovisual Engineering within the subject Introduction to Information and Communications Technologies. The findings reveal that the scenario improves significantly students’ interest in their studies and their understanding about the campus and services provided. The environment is also an innovative approach to successfully support the heterogeneous activities conducted by both teachers and students during the scenario. This paper introduces the goals and context of the case study, describes how the technology was employed to conduct the learning scenario, the evaluation methods and the main results of the experience.

Reusing IMS-LD Formalized Best Practices in Collaborative Learning Structuring

Designs of CSCL (Computer Supported Collaborative Learning) activities should be flexible, effective and customizable to particular learning situations. On the other hand, structured designs aim to create favourable conditions for learning. Thus, this paper proposes the collection of representative and broadly accepted (best practices) structuring techniques in collaborative learning. With the aim of establishing a conceptual common ground among collaborative learning practitioners and software developers, and reusing the expertise that best practices represent, the paper also proposes the formulation of these techniques as patterns: the so-called CLFPs (Collaborative Learning Flow Patterns). To formalize these patterns, we have chosen the educational modelling language IMS Learning Design (IMS-LD). IMS-LD has the capability to specify many of the collaborative characteristics of the CLFPs. Nevertheless, the language bears limited capability for describing the services that mediate interactions within a learning activity and the specification of temporal or rotated roles. This analysis is discussed in the paper, as well as our approaches towards the development of a system capable of integrating tools using IMS-LD scripts and a CLFP-based Learning Design authoring tool.

Towards Reusability and Tailorability in Collaborative Learning Systems using IMS-LD and Grid Services

CSCL applications are complex distributed systems that pose special requirements towards achieving success in educational settings. Flexible and efficient design of collaborative activities by educators is a key precondition in order to provide CSCL tailorable systems, capable of adapting to the needs of each particular learning environment. Furthermore, some parts of those CSCL systems should be reused as often as possible in order to reduce development costs. In addition, it may be necessary to employ special hardware devices, computational resources that reside in other organizations, or even exceed the possibilities of one specific organization. Therefore, the proposal of this paper is twofold: collecting collaborative learning designs (scripting) provided by educators, based on well-known best practices (collaborative learning flow patterns) in a standard way (IMS-LD) in order to guide the tailoring of CSCL systems by selecting and integrating reusable CSCL software units; and, implementing those units in the form of grid services offered by third party providers. More specifically, this paper outlines a grid-based CSCL system having these features and illustrates its potential scope and applicability by means of a sample collaborative learning scenario.