Computer-supported Learning Environment Research Articles

A Methodology for Mining Data from Computer-Supported Learning Environments

Computer-supported learning environments are usually adopted as platforms for distance-based education, but are also used as supporting tools for face-to-face educational settings. However, in such situations educators lose contact with their students and the way they access and use the content made available to them. This paper presents a methodology to process data collected from server logs and from the environments internal databases to provide feedback to authors and tutors about the content they offer. Two clustering algorithms, K-means and Self-Organizing Maps, were used to analyze the collected users’ interaction data and thus establish patterns of content access. An evaluation was performed with data collected from an actual environment used at a Brazilian university.

Novel Design Solutions for Remote Access, Acquire and Control of Laboratory Experiments on DC Machines

Laboratory experiments are integral part of science and engineering education. Automation is changing the nature of these laboratories, and the focus of the system designer is on the availability of various interfacing tools to access the laboratory hardware remotely with the integration of computer-supported learning environment. This paper presents the novel design techniques to access experiments on electrical machines remotely through the Web using virtual instrumentation (VI) tools. The general Web-interface architecture is presented to facilitate control and measurement of experimentation parameters online with complete isolation from the electrical line voltage. LabVIEW-supported VI tools are used to create the Web-based automation and control of the experiment hardware. The custom-built electrical hardware is designed to interface the Web server with the experimental resources and to support user-friendly interface to access the data online. The safety issues while operating the electrical machines online are addressed through the control logic designed by the graphical code. The designed system exploits the data acquisition and the LabVIEW features to extend the dc motor and generator experimentation online along with the acquired data that are presented in virtual meters as well as in graphical plots.

Scaffolding of small groups' metacognitive activities with an avatar.

Metacognitive scaffolding in a computer-supported learning environment can influence students’ metacognitive activities, metacognitive knowledge and domain knowledge. In this study we analyze how metacognitive activities mediate the relationships between different avatar scaffolds on students’ learning. Multivariate, multilevel analysis of the 51,339 conversation turns by 54 elementary school students working in triads showed that scaffolding has an effect on students’ learning. Students receiving structuring or problematizing metacognitive scaffolds displayed more metacognitive knowledge than students in the control group. Metacognitive activities mediated the effects of scaffolding, and increased metacognitive activities supported students’ metacognitive knowledge. Moreover, students who were engaged in proportionately more cognitive activities or fewer off-task activities also outperformed other students on the metacognitive knowledge test. Only problematizing scaffolds led to more domain knowledge and metacognitive activities mediated the effects of the problematizing scaffolds. Moreover, students in the problematizing condition who engaged in more cognitive activities or whose group mates used more relational activities had greater domain knowledge acquisition than other students.

Students' views of collaboration and online participation in Knowledge Forum

This study examined students’ views of collaboration and learning, and investigated how these predict students’ online participation in a computer-supported learning environment. The participants were 521 secondary school students in Hong Kong, who took part in online collaborative inquiry conducted using Knowledge Forum™. We developed a questionnaire to assess the students’ views of their collaboration aligned with the knowledge-building perspective. We also administered the Learning Process Questionnaire to examine their preferred approaches to learning. The students’ online participation in Knowledge Forum was examined using the Analytic Toolkit software. Analyses indicated that students who viewed their collaboration as more aligned with collaborative knowledge building were more likely to employ a deep approach to learning. A structural equation model indicated that the students’ views of collaboration exerted a direct effect on online participation in Knowledge Forum and mediated the effects of deep approaches on forum participation. Implications of examining students’ views of collaboration for productive online participation are discussed.

FACILITATING LEARNING FROM COMPUTER-SUPPORTED COLLABORATIVE INQUIRY: THE CHALLENGE OF DIRECTING LEARNERS' INTERACTIONS TO USEFUL ENDS

Chemistry problems can be tough nuts to crack for students, particularly when the problems are of a mathematical type. Collaborative inquiry activities that are embedded in computer-supported learning environments can provide students with opportunities to construct the kind of knowledge required to solve complex chemistry problems. Yet, directing learners' collaborative inquiry in computer-supported learning environments to such useful ends remains a challenge. In this article, we introduce a new approach to facilitating learning from computer-supported collaborative inquiry. The approach we present is a collaboration script that guides pairs of learners through a sequence of inquiry activities and prompts effective interactions in an adaptive fashion. We developed an initial version of a learning environment that included the collaboration script, a simulated chemistry laboratory and a note-taking and mind-mapping tool. In an experimental study involving two conditions (scripted collaboration, unscripted collaboration), we had pairs of students work on a stoichiometry problem using the learning environment. We compared the learning outcomes and learning experiences of the two conditions, and explored learner-learner and learner-system interactions employing a case study methodology. Based on the quantitative and qualitative results, we derived a set of design recommendations for the next development cycle. Our main recommendations are to (a) inform learners about the value of the script support, (b) add algebra practice items and some general chemistry instruction to the learning environment as well as support for interrelating the multiple external representations in the simulated chemistry laboratory, (c) develop tools for assessing learners' prior knowledge and skills in collaborative inquiry learning, general chemistry and basic algebra, (d) increase the degree to which the learning environment can adapt to different learner needs, and (e) improve the interface and interaction design of the simulated chemistry laboratory.

Videoconferencing in Open Learning

This paper discusses the use of videoconferencing as a tool to enhance collaboration amongst online learners in an open learning context. We present quantitative data from a longitudinal study of naturalistic videoconferencing interactions held via the FM videoconference tool, indicating its global use. The case study presented is analysed according to an instructional framework for collaborative learning in computer-supported learning environments applied on an open learning environment, indicating how videoconferencing can indeed encourage collaborative group work in the study of open content. A variety of communities have used the tool worldwide to connect with colleagues or co-learners in moderated or peer-to-peer events. As only a few of them related their meetings with open educational resources provided in the environment, we wish to give some insights into how further integration of the tool in the environment may increase its use in combination with the material provided. Editors: Stephen Godwin (Open University, UK). Reviewers: Markus Deimann (FernUniversitat, Germany) and Stephen Godwin (Open University, UK).

I-MINDS: A Multiagent System for Intelligent Computer- Supported Collaborative Learning and Classroom Management

I-MINDS provides a computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) infrastructure and environment for learners in synchronous learning and classroom management applications for instructors, for la...

Exploring lake ecology in a computer-supported learning environment

This study highlights the computer-mediated discursive activity of two dyads of first year educational sciences students, each collaboratively exploring several options for increasing the equilibrium size of a fish population in a lake. Our focus is on peers' attempts to come up with justified predictions about the adequacy of several options for maintaining a larger fish population, as well as on their attempts to refine or radically reconsider these theoretical predictions in the light of empirical data provided by software simulations. Thus, this paper is particularly concerned with the construction of arguments on the level of the argumentative (i.e. claims, justifications, challenges) and epistemic operations (i.e. recognising assumptions, appealing to limiting factors) and the contribution of the software simulations in this process. According to the analysis of peers' discourse, both dyads seem to be engaged in the construction of directly justified theoretical predictions by activating several epistemic tools, while only one seems to reach the target concept of carrying capacity. Significant differences may be identified in regard with the two dyads' interest as well as capability in using the simula-tions as a meaningful feedback upon their initial arguments. Implications of students' tendency to transfer the sterile culture of ‘doing school’ into problem-based collaborative learning environments, as well as of their difficulties on both the conceptual level and the level of meaningfully integrating the software simulations in their argumentative reasoning, are discussed.

Approaches to studying and students' use of a computer supported learning environment

Although studies of students’ study approaches in face to face learning environments are commonplace, studies investigating the role of students’ study approaches in online learning environments is currently a less explored area. This paper presents the findings of a survey aimed at investigating the relationship between students’ approaches to studying and their perceptions and use of a computer-supported learning environment in e-business and e-commerce. Participants in the study were a group of post-graduate students studying an E-Business and E-Commerce module. The ASSIST inventory is used to identify the main study approaches within the population. Descriptive statistics of the responses to the inventory confirm the validity and consistency of the results, while a factor analysis identified two main study approaches within the population, a ‘deep-strategic’ and a ‘surface-strategic’ study approach. Positive correlations were found (i) between WebCT and two aspects of a deep and one aspect of a strategic approach and (ii) between the E-Business and E-Commerce CSLE and two aspects of a strategic approach and one aspect of a surface approach. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research investigating study approaches in online learning environments.

Innovative ways for using gStudy to orchestrate and research social aspects of self-regulated learning

This paper explores the ways three different theoretical perspectives of the social aspects of self-regulated learning [Hadwin, A. F. (2000). Building a case for self-regulating as a socially constructed phenomenon. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada; Hadwin, A. F., & Oshige, M. (2006). Self-regulation, co-regulation, and socially-shared regulation: Examining many faces of social in models of SRL. In A. F. Hadwin, & S. Jarvela (Chairs), Socially constructed self-regulated learning: Where social and self meet in strategic regulation of learning. Symposium conducted at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, CA] have been operationalized in a computer supported learning environment called gStudy. In addition to contrasting social aspects of SRL and drawing connections with specific collaborative tools and structures, this paper explores the potential of gStudy to advance theory, research, and practice. Specifically it discusses how the utilization of differing collaborative models provides new avenues for systematically researching social aspects of SRL and their roles in collaboration.

Epistemic and social scripts in computer?supported collaborative learning

Collaborative learning in computer-supported learning environments typically means that learners work on tasks together, discussing their individual perspectives via text-based media or videoconferencing, and consequently acquire knowledge. Collaborative learning, however, is often sub-optimal with respect to how learners work on the concepts that are supposed to be learned and how learners interact with each other. One possibility to improve collaborative learning environments is to conceptualize epistemic scripts, which specify how learners work on a given task, and social scripts, which structure how learners interact with each other. In this contribution, two studies will be reported that investigated the effects of epistemic and social scripts in a text-based computer-supported learning environment and in a videoconferencing learning environment in order to foster the individual acquisition of knowledge. In each study the factors ‘epistemic script’ and ‘social script’ have been independently varied in a 2 × 2-factorial design. A total of 182 university students of educational science participated in these two studies. Results of both studies show that social scripts can be substantially beneficial with respect to the individual acquisition of knowledge, whereas epistemic scripts apparently do not always lead to the expected effects.

A Conceptual Framework of Computer-Supported Ubiquitous Learning Environment

A Conceptual Framework of Computer-Supported Ubiquitous Learning Environment

VIRTOOL – Virtual Reality for Machine – Tool Training

VIRTOOL is an application that is part of the European Union supported project “Virtual Manipulation to Simulate Machine-Tool Processes” (VIRTOOL, CRAFT-1999-70292). The application is being developed by a consortium of two industrial enterprises (Alecop, IMH) and three partners in research and higher education (CEIT, TUD, ACM) from four European countries. The objective of this project is to design and develop a computer-supported learning environment for machine-tool processes by using interactive 3D graphics and virtual reality techniques. An integral part of this software will be an easy to use construction tool for the development of new 3D simulation models of machine-tools with the supporting learning material, which is based on a general instructional design model.

Kids in zen: computer-supported learning environments and illusory intersubjectivity

The nature of human learning changes as new technologies are introduced. Digital media, with interactive and visually driven learning environments, challenge the traditional, linguistically dominated, mode of communication. At least, this is what is claimed. The study explores a short sequence where a group of students interact with two teachers in the context of a complex learning task dealing with recursion in relation to programming. The results suggest that the mastery of conceptual knowledge that the students develop is tied to local features of the situation that they operate in. The rich environment provides a number of cues that assist the students in handling the task, but there is no indication that the relevant conceptual distinctions are mastered in the manner intended.

Telementoring in Community Nursing: A shift from dyadic to communal models of learning and professional development

This article reports on a six-month telementoring initiative in a Canadian community nursing organization. The way in which Internet technologies may support and augment face-to-face mentorship of health care professionals is a relatively unexplored area of research and was the focus of this project. Participants ( N =22) were all employees of Saint Elizabeth Health Care (SEHC), a community nursing agency servicing 150,000 clients in urban and rural Ontario, Canada. Nurse mentees ( n =11) and nurse-mentors ( n =11) engaged in collaborative discourse in webKnowledge Forum, a second-generation computer-supported intentional learning environment (CSILE). Discussions among all participants were directed at collaborative learning and professional development. Results indicate that mentees contributed and read more notes than mentors and were more likely to engage in threaded discourse with peers. Readership patterns were similar for both groups. Fifty-eight per cent of all nurses reported improved asynchronous communication and problem-solving skills as a result of online collaboration. Seventy-five per cent of all respondents reported a positive professional development experience and 50% of all respondents reported improved clinical practice ability as outcomes of the telementorship program. All reported high satisfaction with the technology. It is concluded that this project facilitated a shift from dyadic mentor-mentee (preceptor-intern) training to communal opportunistic learning and professional development.

Enriching accounts of computer-supported collaboration by using video data

This paper will discuss the approach to the evaluation of computer-supported collaborative learning developed in our group over the past ten years. This approach depends on the collection of video data to allow the analysis of key features of problemsolving behaviour within groups of students working on collaborative learning tasks. Our theoretical framework derives from two sources- the CIAOl framework for evaluating examples of CAL and an analysis of appropriate methods of evaluating computersupported collaboration. Our work in this area has been supported by developing the data capture facilities for the CALRG (Computers and Learning Research Group) at the Open University. We will draw on a number of studies to illustrate this approach and will present a brief case study from work done on a computer-supported learning environment for statistics where we use video records of video-mediated collaboration. This case study gives an example of the rich data that can be collected using video recording and analysed to increase understanding of computer-supported collaboration.DOI:10.1080/0968776030110202

Can a collaborative network environment enhance essay-writing processes?

The aim of this study is to examine whether a computer-supported learning environment enhances essay writing by providing an opportunity to share drafts with fellow students and receive feedback from a draft version. Data for this study were provided by 25 law students who were enrolled in a course in legal history at the University of Helsinki in February 2001. Both the students and the teacher were interviewed. The interviews showed that the students' experiences of the essay-writing process were very positive. The teacher's experiences were in line with the students'. The results showed that the students seemed to divide into two groups concerning their experiences towards sharing written drafts with peers: those who were very enthusiastic and enjoyed the possibility to share drafts and those who, on the other hand, felt that the idea of sharing unfinished essays was too threatening for them and required too much openness. The results further showed that the active use of a computer-supported learning environment was related to good essay grades.

EMERGENCE OF PROGRESSIVE-INQUIRY CULTURE IN COMPUTER-SUPPORTED COLLABORATIVE LEARNING

The study focused on analysing the emergence of a progressive-inquiry culture in two CSILE (Computer-Supported Intentional Learning Environment) classrooms across a three-year period. A principal feature of this kind of culture is the processing of explanatory knowledge instead of merely factual knowledge. The results of the study indicate that the classroom culture changed over the three years following the introduction of CSILE. The explanatory level of knowledge produced by the students became increasingly deeper in tracking from the first to third year. In one of the classrooms, the children's levels of explanation reached substantial depth as we pass from year 1 to year 3; here the difference on this temporal variable was large and significant. In this classroom, the students' inquiry was more and more explicitly focused on construction of their own intuitive explanations, as well as the search for explanatory scientific information. Progress in inquiry culture emerged only through the teacher's extended efforts to expand students' practices of progressive inquiry.

Enriching accounts of computer-supported collaboration by using video data

This paper will discuss the approach to the evaluation of computer-supported collaborative learning developed in our group over the past ten years. This approach depends on the collection of video data to allow the analysis of key features of problemsolving behaviour within groups of students working on collaborative learning tasks. Our theoretical framework derives from two sources- the CIAOl framework for evaluating examples of CAL and an analysis of appropriate methods of evaluating computersupported collaboration. Our work in this area has been supported by developing the data capture facilities for the CALRG (Computers and Learning Research Group) at the Open University. We will draw on a number of studies to illustrate this approach and will present a brief case study from work done on a computer-supported learning environment for statistics where we use video records of video-mediated collaboration. This case study gives an example of the rich data that can be collected using video recording and analysed to increase understanding of computer-supported collaboration.DOI:10.1080/0968776030110202

Learning with Technology

Blake Melnick provides an explanation of Knowledge Forum as he uses it to provide a collaborative computer-supported learning environment with his students.