Computer-supported Collaborative Learning Activities Research Articles

The effect of a group awareness tool in synchronous online discussions: studying participation, quality and balance

ABSTRACT Computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) seeks to improve students’ learning with the support of technology. Although CSCL facilitates an enriching environment for cooperation, CSCL activities might be affected by asymmetrical participation. Group awareness tools have proven to enhance learners’ interactions, balancing the levels of participation and increasing the learning outcomes. This study investigates the effect of a group awareness tool (GAT) on participation within synchronous CSCL activities in the context of extracurricular activities. We designed a quasi-experimental within-subject study (GAT exposure and control condition) and tested an ad hoc GAT in a web-based CSCL platform with high school students (N = 140). The measured variables included the effect of the GAT on students’ participation and the quality of discussion. A complementary analysis evaluated students’ perceptions of the tool. Results revealed that the implementation of a GAT encourages students to take part in CSCL discussions without explicitly hindering its quality. Even so, the balance of participation was not significantly affected. Students further reported that they found the GAT useful to regulate collaboration. The results from the study provide further knowledge of the functioning of group awareness tools in secondary education and share an insight into how students perceive them.

CollabABILITY Cards: Supporting Researchers and Educators to Co-Design Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning Activities for Deaf Children

Implementing Collaborative Learning (CL) activities to support the education of children is something that must be carefully designed to achieve the desired goals since just having a group of children working on the same activity does not guarantee proper collaboration. It is something that goes from defining the profile of the students to structuring the collaboration according to the learning objectives, the number of children per group, roles defined, and shared resources among others. Designing Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) activities may be even harder to achieve when collaboration is trying to be accomplished by children with some kind of disability due to differences in the way they communicate or understand the world around them, which is why in this study we decided to focus on designing CSCL activities for deaf children. Since there is not a clear path in the literature to achieve effective collaboration among deaf learners, we propose four stages to be followed through a set of 27 cards that were designed to guide designers/developers and educators through the process of co-designing such activities. The cards were implemented in such a way that they were easy to follow along with, with templates that allowed designers of the CL activity to register all the information related to it. Digital and printed versions of the cards were evaluated by researchers and educators with satisfactory results and a prototype for mobile devices was developed and tested by children through individual and collaborative learning activities.

Effect of the GeoGebra software-supported collaborative learning environment on seventh grade students’ geometry achievement, retention and attitudes

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of using GeoGebra software in a computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environment on seventh grade students’ geometry achievement, retention of learning, and attitudes toward geometry. The study was designed using a quasi-experimental research method with pretest, post-test and delayed post-test. This study was carried out with 62 seventh grade students in a city in western Turkey. CSCL activities using GeoGebra software were implemented in the experimental group, while instruction in the control group continued with textbook-based direct instruction. The Geometry Achievement Test (GAT) and Geometry Attitude Scale (GAS) were applied to groups as pretest and post-test. A retention test was applied to both groups eight weeks after the post-test. Data were analyzed through SPSS 17.0 statistical software by using a t-test and ANCOVA test. It was indicated in this study that CSCL using GeoGebra software significantly increased seventh grade students’ geometry achievement and retention of learning in comparison to textbook-based direct instruction. It was also determined that the CSCL environment with GeoGebra software significantly increased students’ attitudes toward geometry.

The effects of a learning analytics dashboard on teachers’ diagnosis and intervention in computer-supported collaborative learning

ABSTRACT The learning analytics dashboard (LAD) has been recognised as a useful tool to facilitate teachers’ diagnosis and intervention in collaborative learning. However, little empirical evidence has been reported concerning the effects of LAD on teachers in computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a LAD system called the Knowledge-Behavior-Social Dashboard (KBSD) for supporting teachers’ diagnosis and intervention of CSCL activities. Thirty-five pre-service teachers participated in the experiment. The results indicated that teachers using KBSD used more ‘cross-group’ strategies to diagnose students’ learning problems. Teachers in the experimental group also performed more interventions involving ‘cognitive guidance’, ‘scaffold instructing’, ‘positive evaluation’ and ‘individual facilitating’. Moreover, the analysis of the interview revealed that the KBSD tool has the potential to assist teachers in detecting learning problems in a group in an easy and convenient manner. Pedagogical implications and future research are also addressed.

The spiral model of collaborative knowledge improvement: an exploratory study of a networked collaborative classroom

While there are many studies on students’ collaborative learning at the small group level, pedagogies and strategies for supporting students’ collaborative learning at the class level are underexplored. This study proposes a pedagogical model named the Spiral Model of Collaborative Knowledge Improvement (SMCKI) to inform the design and implementation of multi-layered collaborative learning activities in a networked class where there are many groups of students working collaboratively. Starting with a phase of individual ideation, the pedagogical model scaffolds students to go through five phases of intra-group and inter-group knowledge improvement and refinement, with the goal of supporting the advancement of their individual and collective knowledge. An exploratory case study is presented to illustrate how this model was used in a pre-service teachers’ technology-enhanced learning (TEL) activity design lesson in a Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) environment. The results show that the participants significantly improved the quality of TEL design throughout the five phases of SMCKI. The implications of the findings on designing and implementing CSCL activities in authentic class environments are discussed.

Effects of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning with Scripting on Students' Collective Efficacy in Science

Contextualised innovative approach is fast becoming a key instrument to enhance learning. One of the emerging innovations in education is computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) which is a computer-mediated approach that promotes knowledge construction and social interaction among learners. However, limited research has examined how the conjoined effects of CSCL and scripting activity, facilitated the development of collective efficacy, an essential skill that affects group motivation and performance. Ergo, this research investigated the effects CSCL with scripting activity on students' collective efficacy. This study involved three-group pre-test-post-test quasi-experimental design. Data analysis through analysis of variance revealed that CSCL with scripting significantly improved students' collective efficacy, F(2, 114) = 2.877, p = .030. Additionally, the questions generated by the students were analysed. Particularly, CSCL with scripting stimulated intellectual discussion and more importantly promoted inclusivity in learning by providing avenues to understand diverse ideas. Furthermore, this study offered beneficial implications in education.

The effect of computer-supported collaborative learning using GeoGebra software on 11th grade students’ mathematics achievement in exponential and logarithmic functions

The aim of this study is to determine the effect of computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) using GeoGebra software on 11th grade students’ achievement in exponential and logarithmic functions. This study was carried out with quasi-experimental design consisting of a pre-test and a post-test with the experimental group and the control group. The study was conducted with 35 11th grade students (18 for the experimental group, 17 for the control group) in Istanbul, Turkey. The experimental group was taught through CSCL activities using GeoGebra software, while the control group was taught through textbook-based direct instruction. Data were collected via the mathematics achievement test (MAT) developed by researchers and consisted of 20 multiple-choice items. MAT was administered to both groups as a pre-test and a post-test. Data were analysed with SPSS-17.0 package program using t-test and ANCOVA. Results revealed that CSCL using GeoGebra software had significant effects on students’ achievement in exponential and logarithmic functions.

Exploring the role of EFL learners’ online self-regulation profiles in their social regulation of learning in wiki-supported collaborative reading activities

Previous research indicated that the individual skills that learners bring to the group is critical to the social regulation process in computer-supported collaborative learning activities. However, few studies have explored how students’ self-regulation capacity is related to the occurrence of the social regulation strategies in the learning group. Situated in a wiki-supported collaborative reading situation, this study explored the roles of English language learners’ online self-regulation profiles in their use of social regulation strategies in the collaboration process. The participants of this study were 95 Chinese college students who studied English as a foreign language. The Online Self-regulated English Learning Questionnaire was used to measure the students’ self-regulation strategies, based on which latent profile analysis was adopted to identify the students with similar patterns of self-regulation variables. Content analysis of students’ discussion messages was conducted to analyze their social regulation strategies in collaborative learning, focusing on regulation types (i.e., co-regulation and socially shared regulation) and regulation foci (i.e., task, emotion, and organization). This study identified two distinctive types of online self-regulation profiles, namely, reflection-oriented competent profile and average profile. The results show that, in terms of the types of social regulation, individual students belonging to the reflection-oriented competent profile tended to be more active in initiating and carrying out socially shared regulation strategies. Regarding the social regulation foci, it was found that the learners of reflection-oriented competent profile demonstrated significantly more positive social–emotional regulation strategies. The findings suggest that teachers need to consider students’ online self-regulation profiles when dividing them into small groups to carry out wiki-supported collaborative learning activities.

When coding-and-counting is not enough: using epistemic network analysis (ENA) to analyze verbal data in CSCL research

Research on computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) is often concerned with the question of how scaffolds or other characteristics of learning may affect learners’ social and cognitive engagement. Such engagement in socio-cognitive activities frequently materializes in discourse. In quantitative analyses of discourse, utterances are typically coded, and differences in the frequency of codes are compared between conditions. However, such traditional coding-and-counting-based strategies neglect the temporal nature of verbal data, and therefore provide limited and potentially misleading information about CSCL activities. Instead, we argue that analyses of the temporal proximity, specifically temporal co-occurrences of codes, provide a more appropriate way to characterize socio-cognitive activities of learning in CSCL settings. We investigate this claim by comparing and contrasting a traditional coding-and-counting analysis with epistemic network analysis (ENA), a discourse analysis technique that models temporal co-occurrences of codes in discourse. We apply both methods to data from a study that compared the effects of individual vs. collaborative problem solving. The results suggest that compared to a traditional coding-and-counting approach, ENA provides more insight into the socio-cognitive learning activities of students.

Online collaboration in a large university class supports quality teaching

Quality teaching in large classes is generally challenging to achieve. In large classes, there are fewer possibilities for students to interact with the teacher and with each other; the motivation to study decreases as does the possibility for receiving feedback during the learning process. This can result, among other things, in reduced understanding of the learning material and therefore in lower academic performance. The aim of this study is to investigate whether computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) can have a positive impact on aspects of quality teaching such as interaction, motivation and understanding. Two online collaborative activities were designed and implemented in a regularly scheduled course with approximately 200 undergraduate students. This study adopted a mixed method of both qualitative and quantitative analysis: data were collected from surveys, in-depth interviews, forum logs, and exam scores. The results show that CSCL facilitates motivation, interaction and achievement of deep understanding. More particularly, one CSCL activity was found to be a significant contributor to students’ academic performance and this confirmed that traditional lecturing blended with CSCL improves the quality of the teaching compared to traditional lecturing only, at least as far as understanding is concerned. Moreover, the study indicates that different types of collaborative activities have different effects on learning and that the design of collaborative activities is therefore critical to outcomes. In this respect, it also reveals that social loafing, which is usually considered to have only negative effects on collaboration, can instead have a positive impact on learning if the task is appropriately designed.

Internal and External Regulation to Support Knowledge Construction and Convergence in Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL)

Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) activities aim to promote collaborative knowledge construction and convergence. During the CSCL activity, the students should regulate their learning activity, at the individual and collective level. This implies an organisation cost related to the coordination of the activity with the team-mates and the internal and external regulation of this activity. Therefore, we consider a knowledge perspective and an organisation load perspective in the execution of the CSCL activities. We assume the time and efforts spent in the organisation are not spent in the knowledge construction and convergence process. Nevetheless, we assume that in CSCL activities a certain level of organisation is a requirement for the knowledge construction and convergence process. The students’ organisation load depends on the level of the scripting of the CSCL activities. A highly scripted activity implies a high level of external organisation and a lower level of self and co-organisation. When the CSCL activity has a low level of external regulation, the students’ requires a higher level of self and group organisation. CSCL approaches could then imply a high transactive cost in terms of organization that could reduce the time and efforts the students could devote to the knowledge construction and convergence process. In this paper, we analyse the impact of the organisation in the knowledge construction and convergence through a critical revision of the CSCL literature.

The influence of internationalised versus local content on online intercultural collaboration in groups: A randomised control trial study in a statistics course

Computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) has been highlighted as a beneficial learning experience for students in blended and online settings. In highly diverse and international contexts, CSCL also allows students the opportunity to encounter new ideas and values from peers with different backgrounds. However, previous research has highlighted that there are wide variations in student participation levels in CSCL activities and that many students experience social and cultural tensions when working with diverse peers. These issues may damage the quality of online collaboration and limit the potential gains of CSCL. In this study, we explored one evidence-based solution for encouraging CSCL participation: the internationalisation of the online academic content used for collaborative activities. Using a randomised control trial method with 428 undergraduate students in an introductory statistics course, we compared individual and group-level participation in an online collaborative task when students used content from the local context compared to content from international contexts. Our findings suggest that internationalisation of online content can encourage individual-level participation and decrease the disparity of participation within small groups when the content is situated in countries that are personally relevant to students’ own backgrounds. At the same time, participation was influenced by individual demographics and group dynamics.

How Cognitive Styles Affect the Learning Behaviors of Online Problem-Solving Based Discussion Activity

Cognitive styles play an important role in influencing the learning process, but to date no relevant study has been conducted using lag sequential analysis to assess knowledge construction learning patterns based on different cognitive styles in computer-supported collaborative learning activities in online collaborative discussions. This study applies Pask's cognitive styles (holist–serialist dimension) as the grouping basis for students who performed an online problem-solving based discussion activity to analyze how cognitive styles affect learning behaviors. By using quantitative content analysis and lag sequential analysis, the study attempts to identify the distribution structure of the knowledge construction activities demonstrated by students with different cognitive styles, as well as the sequential pattern of those behaviors. The results suggest that, with respect to the quantitative content analysis, students who are holists demonstrate sharing, comparing, and discovery tendencies while neglecting the negotiation and coconstruction of knowledge. As a result of their preference for sequential discussion behavior patterns, students who are serialists may find they have limited time for subsequent discussions because they often tend to continue the discussion of previous, unresolved topics. With respect to the pattern of knowledge construction behaviors, students grouped as serialists may remain at the stage of communication and integration during discussions, throughout which process such students may bring up different viewpoints for each topic step by step, conduct resolution-oriented discussions, and then come to an understanding. The holist students, on the other hand, lack such sequential discussion behavior patterns and hence require more intensive intervention and instruction from teachers for the purpose of improving the diversity of their knowledge construction behavior.

Duruma-Dayalı Bilgisayar Destekli Ortaklaşa Öğrenme Uygulamalarına Katılan Öğretmen Adaylarının Sürece İlişkin Görüşlerinin İncelenmesi

Using cases in instructional activities is beneficial, case-based implementations in Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) may provide various contributions as well. But there is a need to investigate the impact of learning environment, infrastructure, and process features on the CSCL participants. This study aimed to present positive and negative aspects of the process of CSCL by reporting the views of preservice teachers who participated to the case-based CSCL. Qualitative research method was used in this study. The data were obtained from a group of 157 preservice teachers who enrolled in the Department of Computer and Instructional Technologies Education at four public universities in Turkey. Data were analyzed through content analysis method. Results indicated that preservice teachers were satisfied with the process and studying with the cases. Results also indicated that preservice teachers have difficulties related to internet access and time management during the online activities. To increase participation of preservice teachers to online CSCL activities, some suggestions concerning improving infrastructure, enhancing informing, and inspections are made

The dialectical potential of Cultural Historical Activity Theory for researching sustainable CSCL practices

This article explores conceptual and methodological challenges in researching sustainable computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) within authentic educational settings. It argues that to investigate the sustainability of CSCL in such settings, we need to understand how new innovations become enculturated as part of educational communities and the shared repertoires and practices of learners and teachers. The potential for Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) as a relational, dialectical framework for researching collaborative learning is examined. The article argues that, although CHAT is increasingly being used for researching educational settings, it is often employed only descriptively or as a set of guiding principles and the dialectical method, which focuses on emergent contradictions and tensions, is not always fully explored. An integrated conceptual and methodological CHAT framework is proposed for understanding the complex interrelations between discourse, actions and community and as a result how new technological innovations and knowledge creation practices can be appropriated and sustained. This is illustrated through the analytical processes undertaken in a recent empirical study of undergraduates working on an online collaborative research project. The article concludes by arguing that the dialectical method at the heart of CHAT is both unifying and problematizing and could allow us to develop a richer, more integrated and explanatory picture of sustainable CSCL activities.

Assessing collaboration in a wiki: The reliability of university students' peer assessment

This study focuses on the reliability of intra-group peer assessment (PA) of the collaboration processes in a wiki. First-year university students ( N = 659) were subdivided in groups of 8 to create wikis. They were to assess their group members on four criteria (contribution, discussion, sources, and social). The main research question focused on the reliability of this intra-group peer assessment. Intraclass correlations were calculated and the results showed reliabilities with an intermediate to large effect size for the overall score. The main conclusion is that peer assessment is reliable and that it is feasible to implement in the context of online collaboration in a wiki environment. This leads to the practical implication that a web-based peer assessment tool can support instructors to manage computer-supported collaborative learning activities in a wiki-environment.

ELerning and Social Perspective in All Armenian Internet University

The aim of this paper is to provide an argument material in order to open up a discussion concerning educational and political strategies within the field of distance education using a work experience of All Armenian Internet University (AAIU). In the field of computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL) the best deifications are where the exploration of the new possibilities is represented by the emerging technologies. In this paper, there is a desire to build learning environments to support a range of distributed cognitive work, i.e., communities of learners, conceptual learning conversations, and knowledge building communities. Instructional designers are in the initial stages of exploring the commonalities and discontinuities between the varieties of CSCL activities in AAIU

Patterns for designing planning mechanisms in CSCL environments

Designing and building Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) environments are complex tasks owing to their interdisciplinary characteristics. However, the analysis of CSCL environments presented in the literature shows that it is possible to identify common design elements that can be reused to help software professionals in their work. The goal of this paper is to present five patterns to aid the development of planning mechanisms in CSCL. We have mined the patterns by identifying common problems in planning CSCL activities and we point out solutions that are based on real use cases or strongly established theories.

An exploration of students' strategy use in inquiry‐based computer‐supported collaborative learning

Abstract The aim of this study is to investigate students' use of cognitive learning strategies in inquiry‐based computer‐supported collaborative learning (CSCL). A process‐oriented interview framework on cognitive activity, self‐regulation and motivation, and a coding category for analysing cognitive learning strategies and cognitive self‐regulation was developed. The students of an intervention group (n=18) participating in inquiry‐based CSCL and a comparison group (n=8) were interviewed six to eight times during the 3 years of the study. The results derived from the mixed‐method analysis of altogether 161 interviews were compared between the two groups. The results indicate that the students who participated in the inquiry‐based CSCL activities reported deeper‐level cognitive strategies such as monitoring, creating representations and sharing information collaboratively. The students of the comparison group reported more surface‐level strategies such as memorization. However, the findings concerning the utility of CSCL inquiry on cognitive learning strategies were not uniformly positive. It was found that the students of the comparison group reported significantly more strategies under the category of content evaluation. Nevertheless, the results suggest that computer‐supported inquiry‐based learning can enhance the use of cognitive strategies that support learning.

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.