Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning Systems Research Articles

The Impact of a Motivation Booster in Blended Learning Experiences in Computer Science Education

The outcomes presented in this paper are associated with the impact of motivational messages sent by a Motivation Booster to the students that participated in blended learning experiences. The aim of the Motivation Booster is to provide personalized and summarized feedback, by means of motivational messages, to the users of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning systems on their completed collaborative learning activities. The developed Motivation Booster was integrated into the Moodle system. Two blended learning experiences were put into practice at the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana Montería (Colombia) over an academic year with students enrolled in the course called “Software Engineering” at the Computer Science Department. A group of students participated in the first blended learning experience, and they used the Moodle system without the Motivation Booster. And another group of students participated in the second blended learning experience, where they used Moodle with the developed Motivation Booster. The experimental results give us evidences that the students felt more motivated to work with the Moodle system when they received motivational messages due to the Motivation Booster. Especially students were stimulated to work in a group manner.

Mining Associations Between Collaborative Skills and Group Roles in Collaborative E-Learning Environments

Nowadays it is quite common for universities to use computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) systems to favor group learning and teaching processes. CSCL systems provide communication, coordination and collaboration tools that ease group dynamic regardless space-time location of group members. However, forming a group and having the technology to support group tasks is not enough to guarantee students collaboration. Effective collaboration supposes the manifestation of specific roles by group members. Considering that group roles are conditioned (among other factors) by collaborative skills that students manifest, this article explores relations between collaborative skills and group roles by means of the application of association rules over a dataset of university students' interactions during CSCL sessions. The discovered knowledge might be used for automatic recognition of student roles based on collaborative skills that students manifest in their groups. Furthermore, the discovered association rules could be used for forming groups with a balanced combination of roles.

Management of socio-cultural knowledge using an ontology-based socio-cultural user profile in a computer-supported collaborative learning environment

Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) is a pedagogical approach wherein learning takes place via social interaction using a computer or through the Internet. This kind of learning is characterized by the sharing and construction of knowledge among participants. This knowledge is shared through communication technologies embedded in CSCL systems. However in the context of globalization and the expansion of the internet and Information Technology (IT), communication becomes intercultural, so a complex and important dimension is added to CSCL and brings a new type of knowledge, socio-cultural knowledge, that needs to be shared and then presents new challenges. Therefore, in intercultural collaborative learning settings, we need to get and ensure better interaction, to get better learning. Better interaction is reached by promoting motivation to learn in groups, and this is obtained by enhancing user satisfaction which is achieved by the development of tailored CSCL tools to each user according to her socio-cultural background. Adapting the CSCL system to the culture of each participant will allow and facilitate group decision-making in the collaborative learning activity, as we take into account socio-cultural specificities of each learner, this latter will be more comfortable with the system and the other learners, and can collaborate with them to make decisions about the collaborative solution. So this article addresses the challenges started up by this context, which is how to consider socio-cultural specificities of each learner.

PETs at CSCL Service: Underutilised Potentials for Privacy Enhancing Distance Education

Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) support is currently widely accepted to provide reliable and valid formal and informal educational practices as proven to benefit students in onsite as well as distant educational settings. However, some results from case studies indicate that privacy problems could negatively affect CSCL implementation in educational settings. Privacy Enhancing Technologies research (PETs) and the development of multilaterally secure systems are still limited research topics within CSCL due to diverse reasons. Based on deep related literature analysis and previous research results conducted by the authors in building CSCL systems, three main categories were identified for such reasons that have an impact in PETs and multilateral security research: lack of awareness of such PETs' existence; lack of knowledge on ways to efficiently integrate them in CSCL systems and settings; and reluctance to consider their multilaterally secure implementation by CSCL participations due to conflict of interests (e.g. explicit students monitoring requirements, high integration costs, etc.). In this paper, these categories are addressed and the PETs potential is discussed for overcoming the associated emerging drawbacks focused on the distance education CSCL settings in particular. The result of our research is an integrated framework considering multilateral security requirements. Furthermore, proof of concept is provided; enhanced privacy in such settings is applied by demonstrating the fulfilment of selected improvements areas (i.e. mainly network, application anonymity, and process support for resolving potential multilateral security conflicts) in an existing collaborative distance education system.

Facilitating learning in multidisciplinary groups with transactive CSCL scripts

Knowledge sharing and transfer are essential for learning in groups, especially when group members have different disciplinary expertise and collaborate online. Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) environments have been designed to facilitate transactive knowledge sharing and transfer in collaborative problem-solving settings. This study investigates how knowledge sharing and transfer can be facilitated using CSCL scripts supporting transactive memory and discussion in a multidisciplinary problem-solving setting. We also examine the effects of these CSCL scripts on the quality of both joint and individual problem-solution plans. In a laboratory experiment, 120 university students were randomly divided into pairs based only on their disciplinary backgrounds (each pair had one partner with a background in water management and one partner with a background in international development studies). These dyads were then randomly assigned to one of four conditions: transactive memory script, transactive discussion script, both scripts, or no scripts (control). Learning partners were asked to analyze, discuss, and solve an authentic problem that required knowledge of both their domains, i.e., applying the concept of community-based social marketing in fostering sustainable agricultural water management. The results showed interaction effects for the transactive memory and discussion scripts on transactive knowledge sharing and transfer. Furthermore, transactive memory and discussion scripts individually, but not in combination, led to better quality demonstrated in both joint and individual problem solutions. We discuss how these results advance the research investigating the value of using scripts delivered in CSCL systems for supporting knowledge sharing and transfer.

Enhancing non-task sociability of asynchronous CSCL environments

While from a technological perspective Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) systems have been improved considerably, previous studies have shown that the social aspect of the CSCL is often neglected or assumed to happen automatically by simply creating such virtual learning environments. By distinguishing between students’ non-task social interactions from on-task interactions, and through a content analysis, this paper demonstrates that non-task interactions do occur frequently in CSCL environments. Furthermore, by conducting a self-reported survey, the present study operationalizes non-task sociability of CSCL environments and determines factors that affect them. The findings from the survey revealed that the sense of cohesion and awareness about others significantly impact the non-task sociability of CSCL. Furthermore, the study demonstrates that the perception of self-representation and perception of compatibility affect the sense of cohesion and awareness about others and indirectly contribute to the perceived non-pedagogical sociability of the environment. The findings of this paper can be used in future research for investigating the relationship between the non-task sociability of CSCL and other CSCL factors. The study also provides the CSCL lecturers and facilitators with a conceptual model by which sociability can be explicitly addressed in their course planning and delivery processes. And finally, this study develops and validates an instrument that guides required changes in current CSCL systems to improve the non-task social functionality of the environment.

Enhancing collaborative learning through dynamic forms of support: the impact of an adaptive domain‐specific support strategy

AbstractResearch on computer‐supported collaborative learning (CSCL) has strongly emphasized the value of providing student support of either fixed (e.g. collaboration scripts) or dynamic form (e.g. adaptive supportive interventions). Currently, however, there is not sufficient evidence corroborating the potential of adaptive support methods to improve domain‐knowledge acquisition in collaborative activities. Furthermore, available adaptive CSCL systems are difficult to integrate in everyday instruction because most of them are research prototypes. This study investigates the capacity of an adaptive support strategy [implemented in the open source Learning Activity Management System (LAMS) environment] to further improve learning outcomes in the context of a scripted collaborative activity. Thirty‐six students collaborated remotely in dyads on a task structured by a collaboration script. Control group dyads worked without any additional support. Treatment dyads were supported by a domain‐specific adaptive intervention in the form of reminding prompts. Treatment students outperformed those in the control group in domain knowledge acquisition. Overall, this study provides evidence that (1) adaptive forms of domain‐specific support can substantially improve learning in the context of a scripted collaborative activity; and (2) implementing simple forms of adaptive support is feasible and can be easily implemented by instructors in a freely available collaboration support system (such as LAMS).

Students’ communicative behavior adaptability in CSCL environments

By the proliferation of online courses, the social dimension of computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL) is becoming more important than before. Research shows that communicative behavior adaptation to the computer medium is a critical issue in CSCL social relationship development. Two dominant theories in the CSCL field, social information processing theory and adaptive structuration theory, argue that individuals do not simply receive the technology passively but they adapt their behavior to increase benefits from the technology. This paper develops an instrument in order to operationalize the notion of individual's communicative behavior adaptability in CSCL. Through an exploratory factor analysis performed on a small sample of post graduate students of an online degree in an Australian university, three factors have been unveiled: (1) individual perception of self-representation, (2) individual perception of compatibility, and (3) individual perception of the use of computer technology. Identification of these factors is expected to facilitate understanding of individuals' social behaviors in CSCL environment, which in turn will guide the design of CSCL systems. In addition, the paper examines the relationships between the extracted factors and four environmental factors: learner's characteristics, course characteristics, instructor characteristics, and technology characteristics. The results show that none of these characteristics strongly affect perception of self-representation or perception of the use of computer technology. On the other hand, a strong relationship was found between perception of compatibility and learner's and course characteristics. The reliability as well as validity of the study is examined and findings are discussed. These findings will provide further insights into the design process of CSCL systems.

Modeling and Capturing Users' Actions in CSCL Systems for Collaboration Analysis Purposes

A significant number of CSCL (Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning) environments support the learning of groups of students enabling their collaboration in solving problems. These collaborative environments usually need additional computational support to allow the automatic processing of both the actions carried out by the students and the end solution with the aim of studying the learning process and the validity of the solution proposed to the problem. This process, known as Collaboration and Interaction Analysis, is typically carried out in three phases: observation, abstraction and intervention. In this paper, we propose a methodological approach for the design of mechanisms for the observation phase. This approach provides a set of procedures enabling developers to design observation systems in CSCL environments that capture and model all the information required for comprehensive analyses of the collaboration process and the resulting solution to the problem. This methodological approach is put into practice by means of its use in the design of an observation system in the SPACE-DESIGN (SPecification and Automatic Construction of collaborative Environments of DESIGN) collaborative environment.

COLAB: A Collaborative platform for simulations in virtual laboratories

The use of new technologies has an important influence in educational environments obtaining new ways of producing learning. In order to obtain an educational system which fits with the educational necessities, it is necessary to join pedagogical and technical efforts. More concretely our developments are focused on CSCL (Computer Supported Collaborative Learning) systems, in which the base of the knowledge building is the user collaboration. In this paper we are going to explain how we have designed and implemented an architecture with the main aim of supporting users collaboration using simulation tools. What is more this architecture has been designed in order to support asynchronous communication as well as the synchronous communication. Therefore this system has to incorporate ways to store persistent data and also introduce a synchronous system which enables the online communication between tools and users. In order to allow persistent data in the system, technologies like J2EE have been used in the design and implementation of this architecture. Dealing with the synchronous system it has been designed using notification technologies, especially using Elvin notification server as the core of the communication bus. In this paper it will be also described how the tools can interchange information subscribing and unsubscribing to special events delivered in the communication channel. Finally an example of collaboration inside this system will be showed, and it will be explained how the user can move in this environment as well as how users can coordinate the use of some resources.

A FRAMEWORK TO FACILITATE BUILDING OF COLLABORATIVE LEARNING APPLICATIONS

Design and development of computer-supported collaborative learning systems is a complicated technological endeavour, as it involves tackling difficult distributed software design issues and adaptation to the continuously shifting technological background. This paper proposes a framework for the development of Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) applications. The pedagogical value of the proposed framework is based on the fact that it allows the initiation of collaborative sessions with diverse settings, regarding the group size, floor control, and level of peer awareness, thus facilitating teachers to design a variety of collaborative learning activities. Various evaluation studies have been performed using applications built according to the proposed framework, and the obtained results are described.