Analysis methods for collaborative models and activities

Abstract. A classification of analysis methods for CSCL systems is presented which uses as one dimension the distinction into summary analysis and structural analysis and as another distinction different types of raw data: either user actions or state descriptions. The Cool Modes environment for collaborative modeling enables us to explore the whole spectrum of analysis methods. Action logging is based on the MatchMaker communication server underlying Cool Modes. Example instances for several analysis methods have been implemented in the Cool Modes framework.

A Data Mining Toolbox for Collaborative Writing Processes

Collaborative writing (CW) is an essential skill in academia and industry. Providing support during the process of CW can be useful not only for achieving better quality documents, but also for improving the CW skills of the writers. In order to properly support collaborative writing, it is essential to understand how ideas and concepts are developed during the writing process, which consists of a series of steps of writing activities. These steps can be considered as sequence patterns comprising both time events and the semantics of the changes made during those steps. Two techniques can be combined to examine those patterns: process mining, which focuses on extracting process-related knowledge from event logs recorded by an information system; and semantic analysis, which focuses on extracting knowledge about what the student wrote or edited. This thesis contributes (i) techniques to automatically extract process models of collaborative writing processes and (ii) visualisations to describe aspects of collaborative writing. These two techniques form a data mining toolbox for collaborative writing by using process mining, probabilistic graphical models, and text mining. First, I created a framework, WriteProc, for investigating collaborative writing processes, integrated with the existing cloud computing writing tools in Google Docs. Secondly, I created new heuristic to extract the semantic nature of text edits that occur in the document revisions and automatically identify the corresponding writing activities. Thirdly, based on sequences of writing activities, I propose methods to discover the writing process models and transitional state diagrams using a process mining algorithm, Heuristics Miner, and Hidden Markov Models, respectively. Finally, I designed three types of visualisations and made contributions to their underlying techniques for analysing writing processes. All components of the toolbox are validated against annotated writing activities of real documents and a synthetic dataset. I also illustrate how the automatically discovered process models and visualisations are used in the process analysis with real documents written by groups of graduate students. I discuss how the analyses can be used to gain further insight into how students work and create their collaborative documents

Segmenting Publics

This research synthesis was commissioned by the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE) and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) to examine audience segmentation methods and tools in the area of public engagement. It provides resources for assessing the ways in which segmentation tools might be used to enhance the various activities through which models of public engagement in higher education are implemented. Understanding the opinions, values, and motivations of members of the public is a crucial feature of successful engagement. Segmentation methods can offer potential resources to help understand the complex set of interests and attitudes that the public have towards higher education. Key findings: There exist a number of existing segmentations which address many of the areas of activity found in Universities and HEIs. These include segmentations which inform strategic planning of communications; segmentations which inform the design of collaborative engagement activities by museums, galleries, and libraries; and segmentations that are used to identify under-represented users and consumers. Segmentation is, on its own, only a tool, used in different ways in different contexts. The broader strategic rationale shaping the application and design of segmentation methods is a crucial factor in determining the utility of segmentation tools. Four issues emerged of particular importance: 1. Segmentation exercises are costly and technically complex. Undertaking segmentations therefore requires significant commitment of financial and professional resources by HEIs; the appropriate interpretation, analysis, and application of segmentation exercises also require high levels of professional capacity and expertise 2. Undertaking a segmentation exercise has implications for the internal organisational operations of HEIs, not only for how they engage with external publics and stakeholders 3. Segmentation tools are adopted to inform interventions of various sorts, and superficially to differentiate and sometime discriminate between how groups of people are addressed and engaged. 4. For HEIs, the ethical issues and reputational risks which have been identified in this Research Synthesis as endemic to the application of segmentation methods for public purposes are particularly relevant

Managerial features and outcome in neonatal intensive care units: results from a cluster analysis

Background: Healthcare organisations differ in performance even if they are located in the same country or region. Suitable managerial practices and organisational processes can lead to better health outcomes. As a result, hospitals are constantly looking for managerial arrangements that can improve outcomes and keep costs down. This study aims to identify different managerial models in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) and their impact on a large number of outcomes. Methods: The research was conducted in Italy, within the SONAR project. SONAR’s aim was to identify the characteristics of NICUs, monitor outcomes and promote best practices. This study includes 51 of the 63 NICUs that took part in the SONAR project. Questionnaires on the activities and managerial features were administered to doctors and nurses working in NICUs. A total of 643 questionnaires were analysed from doctors and a total of 1601 from nurses. A cluster analysis was performed to identify managerial models of NICUs. Results: Three managerial models emerged from cluster analysis: traditional, collaborative and individualistic. In the “traditional” model the doctor is above the nurse in the hierarchy, and the nurse therefore has exclusively operational autonomy. The “collaborative” model has as key elements professional specialisation and functional coordination. The “individualistic” model considers only individual professional skills and does not concern the organisational conditions necessary to generate organisational effectiveness. The results also showed that there is an association between managerial model and neonatal outcomes. The collaborative model shows best results in almost all outcomes considered, and the traditional model has the worst. The individualistic model is in the middle, although its values are very close to those of traditional model. Conclusions: Health management needs to assess NICU strategically in order to develop models to improve outcomes. This study provides insights for management useful for designing managerial characteristics of NICUs in order to achieve better results. NICUs characterised by a collaborative model in fact show better neonatal outcomes

Decision making in conceptual engineering design: an empirical investigation

This paper describes the aims, methodology and results of an empirical research project. The aim was to gather new insight about how collaborative decision-making processes in the conceptual engineering design phase of the product development process takes place. The insight contributes to bridging the gap between the theoretical development of new decision-making methods in academia and the needs of practitioners. The researchers observed, recorded and transcribed three workshops involving groups that were engaged in the collaborative decision-making processes. Through analysing the transcripts, a set of decision-making related activities was identified. Each activity's time consumption was quantified, and a number of decision-making process models at different levels of detail were developed. During this analysis, various observations on particular process characteristics were made. It was observed that generating formal structures and documentation was beneficial to the decision-making process. This was particularly true with respect to developing problem understanding and consistency. The outcomes should be valuable for the design and development of improved decision-support systems

A collective intelligence approach for building student's trustworthiness profile in online learning

(c) 2014 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works.Information and communication technologies have been widely adopted in most of educational institutions to support e-Learning through different learning methodologies such as computer supported collaborative learning, which has become one of the most influencing learning paradigms. In this context, e-Learning stakeholders, are increasingly demanding new requirements, among them, information security is considered as a critical factor involved in on-line collaborative processes. Information security determines the accurate development of learning activities, especially when a group of students carries out on-line assessment, which conducts to grades or certificates, in these cases, IS is an essential issue that has to be considered. To date, even most advances security technological solutions have drawbacks that impede the development of overall security e-Learning frameworks. For this reason, this paper suggests enhancing technological security models with functional approaches, namely, we propose a functional security model based on trustworthiness and collective intelligence. Both of these topics are closely related to on-line collaborative learning and on-line assessment models. Therefore, the main goal of this paper is to discover how security can be enhanced with trustworthiness in an on-line collaborative learning scenario through the study of the collective intelligence processes that occur on on-line assessment activities. To this end, a peer-to-peer public student's profile model, based on trustworthiness is proposed, and the main collective intelligence processes involved in the collaborative on-line assessments activities, are presented.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Collaborative trails in e-learning environments

This deliverable focuses on collaboration within groups of learners, and hence collaborative trails. We begin by reviewing the theoretical background to collaborative learning and looking at the kinds of support that computers can give to groups of learners working collaboratively, and then look more deeply at some of the issues in designing environments to support collaborative learning trails and at tools and techniques, including collaborative filtering, that can be used for analysing collaborative trails. We then review the state-of-the-art in supporting collaborative learning in three different areas – experimental academic systems, systems using mobile technology (which are also generally academic), and commercially available systems. The final part of the deliverable presents three scenarios that show where technology that supports groups working collaboratively and producing collaborative trails may be heading in the near future

Collaborative Practices that Support Creativity in Design

Design is a ubiquitous, collaborative and highly material activity. Because of the embodied nature of the design profession, designers apply certain collaborative practices to enhance creativity in their everyday work. Within the domain of industrial design, we studied two educational design departments over a period of eight months. Using examples from our fieldwork, we develop our results around three broad themes related to collaborative practices that support the creativity of design professionals: 1) externalization, 2) use of physical space, and 3) use of bodies. We believe that these themes of collaborative practices could provide new insights into designing technologies for supporting a varied set of design activities. We describe two conceptual collaborative systems derived from the results of our study

Librarian and Faculty Collaborative Instruction: A Phenomenological Self-Study

Several models of librarian and faculty collaboration are found in the professional librarian literature. The literature on collaborative self-study research in higher education settings indicates collaborative self-study research can improve interdisciplinary and collaborative approaches to teaching and research and facilitate the transfer of knowledge. A research librarian and assistant professor of special education conducted a phenomenological self-study to examine their multiple roles as researchers, collaborators, and educators who collaborated to develop, implement, and evaluate distance-delivered instructional services for public school teachers who live and work in remote, rural, and Native communities throughout the state of Alaska. Several themes emerged from this study, including: (a) the authors’ interdisciplinary and collaborative efforts resulted in increased opportunities to team teach and conduct future collaborative research; (b) the authors struggled to communicate effectively with students via audio-conference; and (c) the beliefs and practices of both authors were transformed by their participation in this self-study. The study suggests implications for further and improved interdisciplinary collaboration between librarians and faculty. The authors believe this collaborative approach to self-study research facilitates reflective and authentic teaching and research for academic librarians working in collaboration with teaching faculty.Ye