Computer-supported Collaborative Learning Research Articles

Your body tells how you engage in collaboration: Machine‐detected body movements as indicators of engagement in collaborative math knowledge building

AbstractCollaborative learning, driven by knowledge co‐construction and meaning negotiation, is a pivotal aspect of educational contexts. While gesture's importance in conveying shared meaning is recognized, its role in collaborative group settings remains understudied. This gap hinders accurate and equitable assessment and instruction, particularly for linguistically diverse students. Advancements in multimodal learning analytics, leveraging sensor technologies, offer innovative solutions for capturing and analysing body movements. This study employs these novel approaches to demonstrate how learners' machine‐detected body movements during the learning process relate to their verbal and nonverbal contributions to the co‐construction of embodied math knowledge. These findings substantiate the feasibility of utilizing learners' machine‐detected body movements as a valid indicator for inferring their engagement with the collaborative knowledge construction process. In addition, we empirically validate that these inferred different levels of learner engagement indeed impact the desired learning outcomes of the intervention. This study contributes to our scientific understanding of multimodal approaches to knowledge expression and assessment in learning, teaching, and collaboration.Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Previous research emphasizes the importance of gestures as essential tools for constructing common ground and reflecting shared meaning‐making in learning and teaching contexts. The prior studies in multimodal learning analytics (MMLA) suggest that certain forms of body movements and postures can be differentiated based on the automatic detection of upper body joint locations. Empirical observations indicate that co‐thought gestures typically involve smaller hand or arms movement that are closer to the gesturer's body than co‐speech gestures used in interpersonal communication. What this paper adds This paper fills the research gap by examining the use of gestures in collaborative learning, offering insights into how individuals contribute verbally and nonverbally to collaborative knowledge construction. This paper introduces the concept of using machine‐detected body movements as a viable proxy for inferring learners' engagement in collaborative knowledge‐building activities. Leverages sensor technologies for automatic detection of body movements, the innovative approach in this work seeks to overcome the time‐intensive and laborious process of manually coding gestures. Implications for practice and/or policy By recognizing the potential significance of learners' body movements in indicating engagement levels with collaborative knowledge‐building activities, instructors can set up computer‐supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environments to enable capturing these movements. Given the crucial role of gestures in learning, teaching, and collaboration, educators can create more equitable formative assessment practices for linguistically diverse students by developing strategies that align with multimodal forms of knowledge expression. Research can expand beyond mathematics to explore the transferability of these findings to other subjects, helping educators create comprehensive pedagogical approaches that leverage multimodal interactions across disciplines.

Male Students in Female-Dominated Study Programs: Perceived Diversity Climate in Gender-Mixed Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning

Background: Male students’ achievements in female-dominated study programs have garnered limited research attention. This study investigates the relationship between psychology students’ perceived diversity climate and their learning outcomes in a gender-mixed computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) course in introductory psychology. Our main hypotheses were that the diversity climate—learning outcome relationships would be stronger for male (gender minority) than for female students (gender majority). Methods: This study used data from a large sample of university first-year students at a blended learning university ( n = 1,172, 75% female) with three points of measurement in a 9-week CSCL assignment. Findings: Moderated-mediation regression analyses confirmed that students’ perceptions of the diversity climate in their CSCL group were significantly related to gains in online learning self-efficacy among male, but not female students. Furthermore, by increasing gains in self-efficacy, climate perceptions also translated into better quiz performance among male students. Contributions: This study shows that for men perceived diversity climate is a significant determinant of their individual learning outcomes. This calls for paying more attention to the minority perspectives of males in female-dominated psychological programs to better understand why this is the case.

Dialogues across time and space in a video-based collaborative learning environment

AbstractIn this study, we investigate how pre-service teachers’ group dialogues emerged and intersected across time and space as students collaboratively constructed a video-based mind map to prepare for oral exams in a pedagogy course. The study was conducted as part of a design-based research project investigating the ways that video-based mind maps can support learning as both a collaborative activity and a classroom resource. We applied interaction analysis methods to recordings taken during the production of the mind map as well as the videos made by students within the mind map itself to analyze synchronous and asynchronous dialogues among group members as they viewed, recorded, and uploaded videos. The findings offer an in-depth understanding of how collaboration occurs in different space-time configurations within and across groups as mediated by video resources. We discuss how these findings contribute to computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) research on the ways collaboration can emerge across different levels of activity as well as the pedagogical implications for introducing video-based dialogues into the classroom.

Effects of heterogeneous complex-task sequencings on extraneous collective cognitive load, intrinsic motivation, and learning transfer in computer-supported collaborative learning

Computer-supported collaborative learning is an instructional technique to solve complex tasks. One of the key factors to enhance collaboration is increasing the level of interdependence among the collaborators. This study was conducted to examine if the heterogeneous knowledge held by each member promoted by heterogenous instructional sequencings enhances the level of interdependence during collaboration. A quasi-experiment was conducted with college seniors preparing for their careers in a Shinhan University located in Gyeonggi-do, South Korea. The experiment consisted of two phases: one was, where students gained prior knowledge using homogeneous or heterogeneous complex-task sequencing. The other was, where they collaborated with each other using a computer-supported tool. The results showed the statistically significant difference between the two groups in terms of extraneous collective cognitive load, intrinsic motivation, and learning transfer. The collaborative groups of members, which utilized heterogeneous instructional sequencings during the individual learning phase showed relatively lower extraneous collective cognitive load, and higher intrinsic motivation in three consecutive collaborative sessions except for the first. As well as groups of members had higher learning transfer results. Implications and limitations were further discussed on results.

Investigating Linguistic Alignment in Collaborative Dialogue: A Study of Syntactic and Lexical Patterns in Middle School Students.

Linguistic alignment, the tendency of speakers to share common linguistic features during conversations, has emerged as a key area of research in computer-supported collaborative learning. While previous studies have shown that linguistic alignment can have a significant impact on collaborative outcomes, there is limited research exploring its role in K-12 learning contexts. This study investigates syntactic and lexical linguistic alignments in a collaborative computer science-learning corpus from 24 pairs (48 individuals) of middle school students (aged 11-13). The results show stronger effects of self-alignment than partner alignment on both syntactic and lexical levels, with students often diverging from their partners on task-relevant words. Furthermore, student self-alignment on the syntactic level is negatively correlated with partner satisfaction ratings, while self-alignment on lexical level is positively correlated with their partner's satisfaction.

Development of Design Principles of Group Awareness Tool for Facilitating Computer-supported Collaborative Argumentation

As one of the forms of collaborative learning, collaborative argumentation can improve students’ argumentation skills, promote effective content learning and cultivate critical thinking. Especially in the field of Computer-supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL), such as conflicts between group members, free-riding behavior, and unequal participation occur frequently. At the same time, in the CSCL environment, it is difficult to coordinate one’s actions with other group members’ actions. These problems are mainly caused by learners who cannot obtain group awareness information about accompanying learners and the current group. Therefore, this study according to the previous research, the initial design principles and initial specific guidelines for the group awareness tool were identified. After that, three educational technology experts reviewed the initial design principles and guidelines. The modified specific guidelines were applied to the two-week classroom teaching of 45 first-year students in a class. In addition, a learners’ response survey was conducted on the students who actually participated in the computer-supported collaborative argumentation activities. Finally, the results of questionnaire surveys (n=45) and interviews (n=5) were analyzed, and the final specific guidelines were developed. According to the research results, collaborative argumentation based on group awareness tool solves the problem that general collaborative argumentation activities can’t obtain timely information on the cognitive, behavioral, and social awareness of accompanying learners and the current group study situation. It can continuously maintain their study motivation and promote interaction among learners to improve the quality of computer-supported collaborative learning.

Effects of team-building on group cohesion, group efficacy, and individual academic performance in virtual learning environment

This study is based on the hypothesis that group cohesion and efficacy have significant effects on the academic performance of individuals in online (virtual) education environments no less than in-person education environments. To that end, this study explores the effectiveness of group activities in a virtual classroom environment using VC (Virtual Conferencing). It is based on a hypothesis that strong group cohesion and efficacy of a learning group influence the individual academic performance. The findings are as follows. First, team-building activities conducted in an online environment can further improve the level of group efficacy. Second, group cohesion formed in the online educational environment has a positive effect on the individual academic performance. Third, group efficacy amplified through online team-building activities mediate the relationship between group cohesion and individual academic performance. The results of the study support the hypothesis that psychological group variables can also affect the individual academic performance even in online educational environments. These findings will be helpful for researchers who are interested in designing educational collaborative activities and system development for computer-supported cooperative learning (CSCL).

Philosophy of Al-Farabi In Developing A Digital Music Notation Training Model for High School Art and Culture Teachers Based on CSCL

This article explores the philosophical aspects of Al-Farabi in the development of a music art training model, aimed at assisting high school Art and Culture teachers in understanding and teaching digital music notation. Al-Farabi, a great philosopher from the Classical Islamic period, offers valuable insights into education and learning, which are applicable in the context of music art teaching. The article elucidates how Al-Farabi's views, particularly on ethics, morality, and happiness, can be integrated into a training model based on Computer Support Collaborative Learning (CSCL) to enrich the art teachers' learning experience. Furthermore, it provides an overview of how digital music notation can be implemented in high school cultural arts education and why this approach is relevant in the rapidly evolving context of music education. This article is expected to serve as a guide for developing a holistic and philosophical training model in music art education, focusing on understanding digital music notation and applying Al-Farabi's philosophical principles in the learning process. Additionally, this research highlights the importance of integrating technology in art education, demonstrating how digital approaches can broaden the horizons of music art learning. Moreover, the article seeks to prove how teaching methods inspired by Al-Farabi's thoughts can enhance students' creativity and conceptual understanding in music art.

Learning within fiber-crafted algorithms: Posthumanist perspectives for capturing human-material collaboration

AbstractA key commitment of computer-supported collaborative learning research is to study how people learn in collaborative settings to guide development of methods for capture and design for learning. Computer-supported collaborative learning research has a tradition of studying how the physical world plays a part in collaborative learning. Within the field, a material turn is emerging that considers how digital and tangible technologies actively contribute to collaborative learning processes. Studying how tangible materials produce collaborative learning visibly and algorithmically is particularly important at a time when advanced algorithms are integrated into educational contexts in ways that are not always transparent. However, the needed methodologies for capturing how non-human agents take part in collaborative learning remains underdeveloped. The present study builds on current CSCL research that investigates materials in collaborative learning and introduces posthumanist perspectives with the aim to decenter humans methodologically and to probe empirically whether and how these perspectives contribute to empirical understanding of collaborative learning processes. Taking fiber crafts (e.g., weaving and fabric manipulation) as a context for computational learning, the present study conducted a posthumanist analysis of differences among human and non-human participants in collaboration using video data to investigate how middle school youths and fiber craft components performed algorithms over time. The findings show how both youths and craft materials actively contributed to the performance of algorithms. In weaving, algorithms became repeated youth-material movements one dimension at a time. In fabric manipulation, algorithms became a repeated confluence of component parts. Decentering humans through an analysis of differences among human and non-human introduced human-material collaboration as a productive unit of analysis for understanding how materials and people together contribute to producing what can be recognized as computational performance. The findings of this research contribute to ongoing conversations in CSCL research on how computational materials can be considered in collaborative learning and present a new approach to capture collaborative learning as physical expansion over time. The study has implications for future research on capturing collaborative computational learning and designing physical computational learning opportunities that show technology as evolving.

Productive online interactions for developing the impact of continuous learning

ABSTRACT This study investigated the possibilities of productive interactions during knowledge creation exercise in facilitated knowledge-artefact-mediated online workshops. The workshops were organised for health and social sector professionals by adhering to COVID-19 restrictions. The analysis focused on the discussion of the impact of professional specialisation education programmes, which was the object of development activity to enhance continuous learning in working life. Multi-professional online discussions from three workshops were analysed by applying the categories of productive interaction (Damşa, C. I. (2014). The multi-layered nature of small-group learning: Productive interactions in object-oriented collaboration. International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning, 9(3), 247–281. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11412-014-9193-8) based on the knowledge creation (KC) approach. Different types of productive interactions were explored. Particularly, generative collaborative actions for expanding the understanding of the impact of education programmes were developed through the speaking turns. The facilitator’s role and the knowledge artefact mediation were found to be crucial for productive interaction. Online work, even for the development of demanding objects of activity, can thus be productive and capable of generating ideas across professional borders.

Collaborative Learning in Computer Labs for Science Education

This study analyzes the use of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) in computer laboratory settings for secondary school science education. The literature review evaluates the impact of collaborative methods using computer simulations, virtual experiments, and other digital technologies. The search yielded 33 relevant studies, indicating that collaborative conditions outperformed individual laboratory work in computer environments across various measures. Collaborative work in pairs or small teams has been shown to lead to better learning outcomes and expert-like reasoning patterns. Additionally, students have reported finding collaborative computer laboratory work more enjoyable, engaging, and preferable to independent work. The integration of computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) into science education presents opportunities to enhance students' learning experiences through interactive and collaborative approaches. This study highlights the importance of student-centered learning design, effective group dynamics, and reliable technology infrastructure for successful CSCL implementation. Additional research is required to identify the best group composition and task design, as well as the implications for effectively implementing computer-supported collaborative learning in science laboratories.

The implementation of peer assessment as a scaffold during computer-supported collaborative inquiry learning in secondary STEM education

BackgroundComputer-supported collaborative inquiry learning (CSCiL) has been proposed as a successful learning method to foster scientific literacy. This research aims to bridge the knowledge gap surrounding the role of peers as scaffolding sources in CSCiL environments. The primary objective is to explicitly implement peer assessment as a scaffolding tool to enhance students' inquiry output in terms of research question, data, and conclusion. Additionally, students’ perceptions of peer assessment within CSCiL are explored.ResultsThe study involved 9th and 10th-grade students from 12 schools (N = 382), exploring the effects of peer assessment with and without peer dialogue. The results highlight that while adjustments were more frequently made to the research question and data, adjustments to the conclusion showed significantly greater improvement. Furthermore, students’ perceptions of peer assessment during CSCiL were examined, revealing that students generally perceive peer assessment as fair and useful, and they accept it while being willing to make improvements based on the feedback. While students did not report experiencing negative feelings, they also did not report positive emotions from the process. Additionally, the study found that including a peer dialogue in the peer assessment process did not significantly impact the abovementioned findings.ConclusionsThis study enriches our understanding of peer assessment as a scaffolding tool in CSCiL, highlighting its potential to improve inquiry outputs and providing valuable insights for instructional design and implementation.

Escaping binary gender roles: Gender diversity dynamics in a CSCL‐Escape game

AbstractBackgroundGender and gender diversity are group features affecting social interaction and are critical for gender‐inclusive and equitable education. As such, the role of gender and gender diversity is of particular relevance to computer‐supported collaborative learning (CSCL). However, up until now, research on this topic in CSCL remains scarce. Those studies that explore gender frequently utilise a binary gender view, investigating collaboration patterns in terms of differences between men and women despite the pitfalls of this binary view, e.g. the risk of reproducing gender stereotypes.ObjectivesThrough gender diversity modelling based on group communication analysis, this study used a novel approach to investigate the role of gender in CSCL. It explored how gender diversity in CSCL is associated with emergent roles in small group interaction, providing evidence about how gender diversity interacts with the dynamics of group communication in a unique CSCL scenario.MethodsIn this explorative study, we used group communication analysis (GCA) to identify emergent team roles in the communication of triads in a CSCL escape game, realised through a Minecraft computer game. We elaborated on the differences between the team roles with respect to gender‐diverse and non‐diverse groups of our sample (N = 123) to estimate the role of gender diversity in CSCL learning processes.ResultsThe clustering of the group communication resulted in four emergent team roles with distinct communicative patterns: learner, lurker, follower, and leader. Non‐diverse teams were more likely to be dominated by leaders, whereas gender‐diverse teams showed more egalitarian tendencies in their group communication. Further, in gender‐diverse teams, there were more learners, and interaction was more productive overall.ConclusionsGender diversity is an important factor for understanding group dynamics in CSCL. A main advantage of gender diversity modelling – as explored here – is a more nuanced understanding of the role of gender in group communication, in contrast to reproducing existing gender difference paradigms. The approach demonstrated in this study enables CSCL researchers to extend traditional measures of gender towards gender diversity as steps towards more gender‐inclusive and bias‐free education. Further, it yields the practical design recommendation of ensuring group diversity to enhance the likelihood of productive group communication.

Towards a comprehensive framework of social presence for online, hybrid, and blended learning

Social presence, which refers to the psychological phenomenon of perceiving other persons in technology mediated communication as “real” and with whom one can connect, has gained an increasing interest by teachers and researchers involved in designing online, hybrid, and blended learning environments, particularly group learning settings known as computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL). While some scholars attribute social presence primarily to the physical attributes of communication media, others emphasize the importance of social contextual and individual factors. Despite considering these factors, they still cannot fully explain the varying degrees of social presence experienced across different communication and collaboration modes and modalities. Consequently, there is a need for a more comprehensive theoretical account on the antecedents of social presence. In this article we propose such an account that integrates the social information processing (SIP) theory, construal level theory (CLT), and telepresence theory into one social presence framework. In line with CLT, we propose that social presence is also influenced by the impressions (construals) we construct from other persons not only through the accumulation of messages over time but also through the psychological distance we feel to those persons, which may be imposed by features of the communication media or realities of the learning context. Further, in line with telepresence theory, we propose that social presence is influenced by the sense of being “present” in the remote physical or virtual place, as this is where other salient persons “are.” This comprehensive theoretical framework allows us to understand varying degrees of social presence while in (pseudo) real-time and asynchronous communication and collaboration using a variety of different communication media ranging from text-based (e.g., e-mail, instant text messaging) to immersive (e.g., 3D computer generated; a physical remote place).

Teammate Familiarity in Distributed Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning: The Mediating Role of Social Presence

Teammate Familiarity in Distributed Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning: The Mediating Role of Social Presence

Hacking gender in computer‐supported collaborative learning: The experience of being in mixed‐gender teams at a computer science hackathon

AbstractBackgroundGender stereotypes about women and men are prevalent in computer science (CS). The study's goal was to investigate the role of gender bias in computer‐supported collaborative learning (CSCL) in a CS context by elaborating on gendered experiences in the perception of individual and team performance in mixed‐gender teams in a hackathon.DatasetThe dataset of this study was collected at a 3‐day CSCL hackathon aimed at gaining knowledge on designing educational games. We assigned the 28 participants of the hackathon to mixed‐gender groups and asked them to fill out a questionnaire, including collective self‐esteem scales, before the start. During the hackathon, we again asked the participants to complete team progress evaluation surveys individually after each workday. Lastly, we interviewed 11 participants to elaborate on the quantitative findings with qualitative data.MethodologyWe applied an exploratory mixed‐method approach using quantitative survey data at several time points during the hackathon, which was analysed with clustering and descriptive statistics and complemented with qualitative coding of interviews with participants.ResultsThe results demonstrate that social and psychological aspects of gender are important for understanding the outcomes and perceptions of gender in a CS hackathon. The analysis further suggests that collective self‐esteem can be used as a key variable to assess gender differences in CSCL studies, providing explanatory benefits. More broadly, results gave reason to believe that CSCL in the CS domain currently severely fails to account for gender representation. Interviewed participants raised substantial concerns about the underlying gender stereotypes prevalent in communication, team roles, and work division. We provide recommendations for practitioners seeking to create gender‐inclusive and counter‐stereotypical CSCL and wider, critical proposals for how we, as researchers, can assess gender with appropriate methodologies and interventions in computer science education.

The role of first-language heterogeneity in the acquisition of online interaction self-efficacy in CSCL

The acquisition of online interaction competencies is an important learning objective. The present study explored the relationships between the first-language heterogeneity of computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) groups and the development of students’ online interaction self-efficacy via a pretest–posttest design in the context of a nine-week CSCL course. The research participants were 1525 freshmen receiving distance education who were randomly assigned to 343 CSCL groups. Independent of their own language status, students in CSCL groups featuring first-language heterogeneity exhibited lower precourse–postcourse gains in online interaction self-efficacy than students in groups without heterogeneity. Consistent with a theoretically derived moderation model, the relationships between first-language heterogeneity and self-efficacy gains were moderated by the amount of time that the groups spent on task-related communication during the initial collaboration phase (i.e., the relationships were significant when little time was spent on it but not when a great deal of time was spent on it). In contrast, the amount of time that groups spent on communication related to getting to know each other was ineffective as a significant moderator. Follow-up analyses indicated that time spent getting to know each other in first-language heterogeneous CSCL groups seems to have had the paradoxical effect of increasing rather than decreasing perceptions of heterogeneity among group members. Apparently, this effect impaired online interaction self-efficacy gains.

Enriching Multimodal Data

Collaboration is a complex, multidimensional process; however, details of how multimodal features intersect and mediate group interactions have not been fully unpacked. Characterizing and analyzing the temporal patterns based on multimodal features is a challenging yet important work to advance our understanding of computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL). This paper highlights the affordances, as well as the limitations, of different temporal approaches in terms of analyzing multimodal data. To tackle the remaining challenges, we present an empirical example of multimodal temporal analysis that leverages multi-level vector autoregression (mlVAR) to identify temporal patterns of the collaborative problem-solving (CPS) process in an immersive astronomy simulation. We extend previous research on joint attention with a particular focus on the added value from a multimodal, temporal account of the CPS process. We incorporate verbal discussion to contextualize joint attention, examine the sequential and contemporaneous associations between them, and identify significant differences in temporal patterns between low- and high-achieving groups. Our paper does the following: 1) creates interpretable multimodal group interaction patterns, 2) advances understanding of CPS through examination of verbal and non-verbal interactions, and 3) demonstrates the added value of a complete account of temporality including both duration and sequential order.

The Impact of Experiential Learning and the Use of Digital Platforms on Global Virtual Teams’ Motivation

ABSTRACT This paper sheds light on the impact of the digital platforms’ enhancement and usage of latest synchronous and asynchronous teaching-learning platforms through a global virtual project involving business schools across five countries. The study focuses on how technology involved in the learning-teaching process at different business schools has affected the commitment of undergraduates and graduates in the post-COVID era. Furthermore, the paper discusses how the global virtual teams of students has increased their motivation in their studies. The paper is based on a blended learning international collaboration (BLIC) project involving 150 students participating in global virtual collaboration via different digital platforms in classes on International Management and International Business. The study results show, that with computer-supported collaborative learning, students across all involved business schools have been highly committed and motivated in conducting their assignments. The paper shows that the enhancement and utilization of digital platforms in face-to-face and online classes in International Business and International Management, within this virtual collaboration, has provided the students with new knowledge and has held motivation high throughout the project.

Undergraduate students’ views about peer mentoring as a tool to enhance computer-supported collaborative learning

Computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) pedagogies, platforms, and tools are prevalent in higher education due to their pervasive capabilities to enhance students’ engagement, communication, and learning. However, it is reported that CSCL tools, media, and platforms may not yield the desired results if not planned, utilized, and managed strategically. Facilitating students’ learning through CSCL may require a non-hierarchical approach, such as peer mentoring, for sustainably valuable outcomes. Using this approach successfully will also require contextual diagnostic analysis and exploration. This study was, therefore, conducted to explore the means to effectively deploy peer mentoring to enhance CSCL involving 227 undergraduate students in an Emirati university. Data were collected using a questionnaire with quantitative and qualitative elements. Data analyses were done using descriptive statistics and thematic coding. Findings show that students are well-disposed to peer mentoring as a measure for enhancing CSCL regardless of their demographic characteristics, as they could learn from each other and develop transferrable skills. However, students indicated that the process could be challenging with language barriers, technological issues, and distractions. Even so, the findings show that peer mentoring in CSCL could be enhanced with students’ participation in the exercise made voluntary and the availability of different CSCL platforms, among others.