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

Improving Hybrid Brainstorming Outcomes with Scripting and Group Awareness Support

Previous research has shown that hybrid brainstorming, which combines individual and group methods, generates more ideas than either approach alone. However, the quality of these ideas remains similar across different methods. This study, guided by the dual-pathway to creativity model, tested two computer-supported scaffolds – scripting and group awareness support – for enhancing idea quality in hybrid brainstorming. 94 higher education students,grouped into triads, were tasked with generating ideas in three conditions. The Control condition used standard hybrid brainstorming without extra support. In the Experimental 1 condition, students received scripting support during individual brainstorming, and students in the Experimental 2 condition were provided with group awareness support during the group phase in addition. While the quantity of ideas was similar across all conditions, the Experimental 2 condition produced ideas of higher quality, and the Experimental 1 condition also showed improved idea quality in the individual phase compared to the Control condition

Enhancing Free-text Interactions in a Communication Skills Learning Environment

Learning environments frequently use gamification to enhance user interactions.Virtual characters with whom players engage in simulated conversations often employ prescripted dialogues; however, free user inputs enable deeper immersion and higher-order cognition. In our learning environment, experts developed a scripted scenario as a sequence of potential actions, and we explore possibilities for enhancing interactions by enabling users to type free inputs that are matched to the pre-scripted statements using Natural Language Processing techniques. In this paper, we introduce a clustering mechanism that provides recommendations for fine-tuning the pre-scripted answers in order to better match user inputs

The Effects of Self-Regulated Learning Training on Teachers’ Self-Regulated Learning, Self-Efficacy for Teaching, and Perceived Instructional Effectiveness in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning Environments

The effects of training on teachers’ self-regulated learning (SRL), self-efficacy for teaching, and perceived instructional effectiveness in computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environments were investigated. Participants were 80 K-12 teachers who had recently transitioned to teaching in a CSCL environment when schools closed in response to the COVID- 19 pandemic. The researcher also explored how teachers use SRL skills in their learning and instruction. Training consisted of weekly collaborative meetings addressing pedagogy and technology connections. Participants in the treatment group received explicit training in SRL and practice applying concepts to their learning and instruction. Participants in both group conditions engaged in activities fostering reflection, goal setting, planning, monitoring, and motivation for learning and teaching in a CSCL environment. The quantitative results revealed no group differences between teachers’ SRL, self-efficacy for teaching, and perceived instructional effectiveness in CSCL. However, analyses of follow-up interviews and participants’ weekly reflections throughout the training intervention showed teachers in the treatment group more frequently and with greater specificity described their SRL skills by comparison to the teachers who did not receive explicit SRL training. These findings suggest training in SRL in CSCL environments likely contributes to teachers’ professional knowledge and skills as instructors in CSCL environments. Additionally, the granularity of measures likely impacts detection of SRL, self-efficacy for teaching, and perceived instructional effectiveness in CSCL environments

Designing electronic collaborative learning environments

Electronic collaborative learning environments for learning and working are in vogue. Designers design them according to their own constructivist interpretations of what collaborative learning is and what it should achieve. Educators employ them with different educational approaches and in diverse situations to achieve different ends. Students use them, sometimes very enthusiastically, but often in a perfunctory way. Finally, researchers study them and—as is usually the case when apples and oranges are compared—find no conclusive evidence as to whether or not they work, where they do or do not work, when they do or do not work and, most importantly, why, they do or do not work. This contribution presents an affordance framework for such collaborative learning environments; an interaction design procedure for designing, developing, and implementing them; and an educational affordance approach to the use of tasks in those environments. It also presents the results of three projects dealing with these three issues

Are CSCL and Learning Sciences research relevant to large-scale educational reform?

This Symposium includes 4 papers: Paper 1 - From e-Learning Pilot Scheme to Scalable e-Learning Innovations: Wishful thinking or reality? (pp. 573-574 Nancy Law and Yeung Lee, University of Hong Kong) Paper 2: Restoring “how people learn” as the core of educational reform in Japanese classrooms (pp. 574-575 Naomi Miyake, University of Tokyo) Paper 3: Scaling up rapid collaborative practices in Singapore schools (pp. 575-577 Chee-Kit Looi, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University Paper 4: eTwinning: a European Network Community for Teachers to support cross-border school collaboration (pp. 577-579 Riina Vuorikari, European Schoolnet)CSCL 2013 Proceedings: v. 1 - Full Papers & Symposia - http://www.isls.org/cscl2013/Volume%201%20Final%20CSCL%202013%20Proceedings.pdf ; v. 2 - Short Papers, Panels, Posters, Demos, & Community Events - http://www.isls.org/cscl2013/Volume%202%20Final%20CSCL%202013%20Proceedings.pdfConference Theme: To see the world and a grain of sand: Learning across levels of space, time, and scaleMany scholars have contributed efforts to improve education in schools. A major motivation for learning scientists to develop design research as a methodology is to contribute to theory and educational practice through rigorous research without avoiding the complexities and messiness in authentic educational settings. There are many examples of successful implementation of collaborative, knowledge-construction oriented pedagogies using socio-cognitive and socio-metacognitive tools in formal and informal educational settings as well as in teacher professional development. However, there are many challenges to scaling up such innovations beyond small-scale implementation, including that of developing into “fatal mutations” (Brown, 1992). This symposium provides an opportunity for discussion and reflection on the impact that CSCL and Learning Sciences researchers have made on large-scale education reform and what, if any, may be done to extend this impact by bringing together a set of papers describing some large-scale education innovation initiatives in Asia and Europe.published_or_final_versio