Facilitating collaborative knowledge construction in computer-mediated learning with structuring tools

Collaborative knowledge construction in computer-mediated learning environments puts forward difficulties regarding what tasks learners work on and how learners interact with each other. For instance, learners who collaboratively construct knowledge in computer-mediated learning environments sometimes do not participate actively or engage in off-task talk. Computer-mediated learning environments can be endorsed with socio-cognitive structuring tools that structure the contents to be learned and suggest specific interactions for collaborative learners. In this article, two studies will be reported that applied content- and interaction-oriented structuring tools in computer-mediated learning environments based on electronic bulletin boards and videoconferencing technologies. In each study the factors "content-oriented structuring tool" and "interaction-oriented structuring tool" have been independently varied in a 2X2-factorial design. Results show that interaction-oriented structuring tools substantially foster the processes of collaborative knowledge construction as well as learning outcomes. The content-oriented structuring tools facilitate the processes of collaborative knowledge construction, but have no or negative effects on learning outcome. The findings will be discussed against the background of recent literatGemeinsame Wissenskonstruktion in computervermittelten Lernumgebungen birgt Schwierigkeiten in Bezug darauf, welche Aufgaben Lernende bearbeiten und wie sie dabei miteinander interagieren. Lernende, die gemeinsam Wissen in computervermittelten Lernumgebungen konstruieren, nehmen z. B. manchmal nicht aktiv an der Bearbeitung von Lernaufgaben teil oder beschäftigen sich mit inhaltsfremden Themen. Computervermittelte Lernumgebungen können mit Hilfe sozio-kognitiver Strukturierungswerkzeuge unterstützt werden, die die Lerninhalte vorstrukturieren und den Lernenden spezifische Interaktionen nahe legen. In diesem Beitrag werden zwei Studien berichtet, die inhalts- und interaktionsbezogene Strukturierungswerkzeuge in computervermittelten Lernumgebungen, die auf web-basierten Diskussionsforen und Videokonferenz-Technologien beruhen, zum Einsatz gebracht und analysiert haben. In jeder der Studien wurden die Faktoren "inhaltsbezogenes Strukturierungswerkzeug" und "interaktionsbezogenes Strukturierungswerkzeug" unabhängig voneinander in einem 2X2-Design variiert. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass interaktionsbezogene Strukturierungswerkzeuge die Prozesse sowie die Ergebnisse gemeinsamer Wissenskonstruktion substanziell fördern können. Die inhaltsbezogenen Strukturierungswerkzeuge unterstützen die Prozesse gemeinsamer Wissenskonstruktion, zeitigen aber keine oder negative Effekte auf die Lernergebnisse. Die Befunde werden vor dem Hintergrund aktueller theoretischer Ansätze diskut

Collaborative E-learning Methodologies: an Experience of Active Knowledge in ICT Classrooms

In the present study we highlight a specific environment that makes use of collaborative technological tools, like wikis and forums within an e-learning platform. Both of these approaches convey a lot of responsibility from the teacher to the students and the hoping, as backed up by the literature, is to promote deeper learning and reasoning skills at a higher level. The general goal of this paper is to contribute for the theoretical discussion on how active and collaborative experiences in ICT classrooms play a role on the construction of knowledge in HEIs. Based on the pointed outlines, we intend to: (1) understand how collaborative e-learning environments get students actively involved in the learning process;(2) perspective the role of collaborative tools at the level of group work and (3) find out how students assess their performance within a working group. Data was collected through questionnaires available on the e-learning platform Moodle. Descriptive statistical techniques were used to analyze quantitative data. Within the research questions proposed, the study, points towards some understanding of how a collaborative learning environment seems to get students actively involved in the learning process mainly if the tasks to be perform have an empirical component. The study also has shown that students seem to identify themselves with the need to be involved in simulations of their future professional activity, as well as with the need to regulate their own learning and to promote discussion not only between peers but also with the teacher

A Collaborative Lecture in Information Retrieval for Students at Universities in Germany and Switzerland

K3, work in progress, is an acronym for Kollaboration (collaboration), Kommunikation (communication), and Kompetenz (competence). K3 provides a platform in the context of knowledge management to support collaborative knowledge production in learning environments. The underlying hypothesis states that collaborative discourse conciliates information as well as communication competence in learning contexts. The collaborative, communicative paradigm of K3 is implemented by asynchronous communication tools as a means of constructivist learning methodology. In this paper we will describe a K3 course. The lecture was organized and carried out at two places in two different countries (Germany and Switzerland) with students from different universities in the context of Library and Information Science. The paper informs about the management of the lecture and about the problems we had to run the lecture at two places. The circumstances in coordinating the presentations, the exercises, the examinations and evaluation, and the time schedule are presented. The conclusions of the lecturers and the results of a questionnaire for the students are explained in detail

Integrating DGSs and GATPs in an Adaptative and Collaborative Blended-Learning Web-Environment

The area of geometry with its very strong and appealing visual contents and its also strong and appealing connection between the visual content and its formal specification, is an area where computational tools can enhance, in a significant way, the learning environments. The dynamic geometry software systems (DGSs) can be used to explore the visual contents of geometry. This already mature tools allows an easy construction of geometric figures build from free objects and elementary constructions. The geometric automated theorem provers (GATPs) allows formal deductive reasoning about geometric constructions, extending the reasoning via concrete instances in a given model to formal deductive reasoning in a geometric theory. An adaptative and collaborative blended-learning environment where the DGS and GATP features could be fully explored would be, in our opinion a very rich and challenging learning environment for teachers and students. In this text we will describe the Web Geometry Laboratory a Web environment incorporating a DGS and a repository of geometric problems, that can be used in a synchronous and asynchronous fashion and with some adaptative and collaborative features. As future work we want to enhance the adaptative and collaborative aspects of the environment and also to incorporate a GATP, constructing a dynamic and individualised learning environment for geometry.Comment: In Proceedings THedu'11, arXiv:1202.453

The role of Web 2.0 tools in collaborative learning

Web 2.0 is a debatable term and draws much argument. In spite of one’s opinion towards the term, Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, wikis, podcasts and RSS feeds are enormously used in learning environments. In this sense, the overall purpose of this research was to investigate potential of using different Web 2.0 tools in collaborative learning as well as their advantage. Four interviews have been conducted with the user of Web 2.0 tools and number of documents has been taken as empirical data to analysis what Web 2.0 tools are preferred to use in collaborative learning and what will be the advantages of using Web 2.0 tools in education. This research work represents a framework for Web 2.0 tools through the assembly of literature and empirical data which describe the course of action in learning and benefits of these tools

Competences for collaboration and knowledge sharing in digital society - a case study with an erasmus intensive programme

With the advent of social and collaborative environments, students became more active and participative - they not only have access to contents but also create and share them, becoming proactive. Communication has evolved, and with this evolution came the new media and the possibility of live conferencing, video sharing, social networking, collaborative tools, allowing the student to create, work collaboratively and communicate in a more direct way with their peers and their teachers. Instead of merely searching for information, applications such as bookmarking, feeds, tweeter and pinboards, digital portfolios, etc., along with the possibility of creating your own personal webpage, today’s Web gives students also the chance to create a PLE - A Personal Learning Environment. A PLE “recognizes that learning is continuing and seeks to provide tools to support that learning” (Attwell, 2007). The Individuals are responsible for the management of their own learning environment and for the selection of tools and contexts where learning will take place. Students need to acquire certain skills and competences, specific of a digital and connected society, in order to “effectively benefit from e-government, e-learning and e-health services, and participate actively in the knowledge society as co-creators, and not simply consumers, as highlighted by the European e-skills strategy” (McCormack, 2010). To only possess hard skills (that comes with experience and formal education) may not be enough to get someone a job. Besides e-skills and e-literacy competences, soft and social skills are also required. These can be practiced and enhanced in virtual environments. Digital literacy, and therefore e-skills, are transversal competences needed to every citizen. In this paper we will present the results of a case study carried out with attendees of an Erasmus Intensive Programme, which has promoted the development of digital literacies among participants. The Programme took place during 2013 summer and involved students and teachers (of teacher education and social service fields) from 3 different countries. The classes covered different tools and 12 tutors were involved. The main objectives were to provide students with information and communication technologies (ICT) skills for a digital society, namely: • Identification of students’ competencies in ICT; • Present students with different available collaboration tools by exploring the web 2.0; • Selection of specific tools to create students' personal learning environment (PLE); • Acquire necessary knowledge to master the selected tools; • Work collaboratively with the web 2.0 tools; • Establish methods for instruction and course design based on Web 2.0 (teacher education) with the goal to integrate technology enhanced learning and individual knowledge management in educational processes. At the end attendees were able to: • Master the different tools & services; • Be capable to use and select the most adequate web 2.0 tools & services; • Create and manage their PLE; • Share and to work collaboratively; • Be digitally skilled.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Student Collaboration in IT and Engineering Education

Universities are locations of knowledge gathering and creation. Within teaching approaches, collaborative learning is a practice whereby students work together through participation and interaction to synthesise knowledge together (Paulus 2005). Whilst group work is quite popular in technical fields true collaborative learning, as opposed to cooperation, has traditionally been considered easier to implement in fields like the arts rather than in the technical fields due in part to a greater focus on group synthesis tasks in the former and application tasks in the latter. Further, the collaborative tools used in online education environments are touted as the cure-all for implementing collaborative learning, however, collaboration is often not experienced to the fullest extent in these environments and does not happen automatically (e.g. Hathorn & Ingram 2002; Kim 2013). Previous studies in engineering have shown positive relationships between students’ reporting of their own informal collaboration with their confidence in their learning of course material, knowledge building behaviours, and their course grade (Stump et al 2013). Also gender differences have been found in use of collaborative learning activities (Stump et al 2013) which suggests its use may benefit some underrepresented students. However to do this, learning design, scaffolding and assessment frameworks amongst other factors must be considered by educators for effective collaboration (e.g. Kim 2013; Kurnaz, Erg ̈un, & Ilgaz 2018). Various works (e.g. Göl & Nafalski 2007; Finger et al 2005) highlight the integration of collaboration in studio and project-based learning, but it can also be integrated into more conventional lab-experiment type subjects (Schaf et al 2009). This work examines the psychological underpinnings, benefits, problems, and practice of collaborative learning with a particular focus on its potential for IT and engineering education at a technical University moving to studio-based learning. The research focus is how collaborative learning is being implemented in IT and engineering and how its use can be improved given the industrial, academic and learning context in the case study University. With the growing push to incorporate these approaches into engineering and IT, it is important that the instructors and students have the tools to best engage in effective collaboration. Selecting these tools may depend on the learning context, the content type and the lecturer’s style

Ten-Competence:Life-Long Competence Development and Learning

Koper, R., & Specht, M. (2008). Ten-Competence: Life-Long Competence Development and Learning. In M-A. Cicilia (Ed.), Competencies in Organizational e-learning: concepts and tools (pp. 234-252). Hershey: IGI-Global.In most solutions for supporting learning today, one single approach is leading the selection, installation, and usage of information technology (IT)-based tools. Either content-based approaches lead to the creation of a content-based infrastructure with course management systems and content repositories, or a collaboration background leads to the usage of virtual classrooms and collaborative learning environments. The TEN-Competence project aims forward for integration of the different tools, perspectives, and learning environments in a common open source infrastructure based on today’s standards on the level of knowledge resources, learning activities, competence development programs, and learning networks. TEN-Competence will integrate tools in a service-oriented architecture (SOA) and evaluate the approach in a variety of pilot applications for lifelong competence development.This work has been sponsored by the EU project TENCompetenc

Student Collaboration in IT and Engineering Education

Universities are locations of knowledge gathering and creation. Within teaching approaches, collaborative learning is a practice whereby students work together through participation and interaction to synthesise knowledge together (Paulus 2005). Whilst group work is quite popular in technical fields true collaborative learning, as opposed to cooperation, has traditionally been considered easier to implement in fields like the arts rather than in the technical fields due in part to a greater focus on group synthesis tasks in the former and application tasks in the latter. Further, the collaborative tools used in online education environments are touted as the cure-all for implementing collaborative learning, however, collaboration is often not experienced to the fullest extent in these environments and does not happen automatically (e.g. Hathorn & Ingram 2002; Kim 2013). Previous studies in engineering have shown positive relationships between students’ reporting of their own informal collaboration with their confidence in their learning of course material, knowledge building behaviours, and their course grade (Stump et al 2013). Also gender differences have been found in use of collaborative learning activities (Stump et al 2013) which suggests its use may benefit some underrepresented students. However to do this, learning design, scaffolding and assessment frameworks amongst other factors must be considered by educators for effective collaboration (e.g. Kim 2013; Kurnaz, Erg ̈un, & Ilgaz 2018). Various works (e.g. Göl & Nafalski 2007; Finger et al 2005) highlight the integration of collaboration in studio and project-based learning, but it can also be integrated into more conventional lab-experiment type subjects (Schaf et al 2009). This work examines the psychological underpinnings, benefits, problems, and practice of collaborative learning with a particular focus on its potential for IT and engineering education at a technical University moving to studio-based learning. The research focus is how collaborative learning is being implemented in IT and engineering and how its use can be improved given the industrial, academic and learning context in the case study University. With the growing push to incorporate these approaches into engineering and IT, it is important that the instructors and students have the tools to best engage in effective collaboration. Selecting these tools may depend on the learning context, the content type and the lecturer’s style

ARGUMENTATION-BASED COMPUTER SUPPORTED COLLABORATIVE LEARNING (ABCSCL): THE ROLE OF INSTRUCTIONAL SUPPORTS

This paper investigates the role of instructional supports for argumentation-based computer supported collaborative learning (ABCSCL), a teaching approach that improves the quality of learning processes and outcomes. Relevant literature has been reviewed to identify the instructional supports in ABCSCL environments. A range of instructional supports in ABCSCL is proposed including scaffolding, scripting, and representational tools. Each of these instructional supports are discussed in detail. Furthermore, the extent to which and the way in which such instructional supports can be applied in ABCSCL environments are discussed. Finally, suggestions for future work and implications for the design of ABCSCL environments are provided.  Article visualizations