Analyzing collaborative learning processes automatically

In this article we describe the emerging area of text classification research focused on the problem of collaborative learning process analysis both from a broad perspective and more specifically in terms of a publicly available tool set called TagHelper tools. Analyzing the variety of pedagogically valuable facets of learners’ interactions is a time consuming and effortful process. Improving automated analyses of such highly valued processes of collaborative learning by adapting and applying recent text classification technologies would make it a less arduous task to obtain insights from corpus data. This endeavor also holds the potential for enabling substantially improved on-line instruction both by providing teachers and facilitators with reports about the groups they are moderating and by triggering context sensitive collaborative learning support on an as-needed basis. In this article, we report on an interdisciplinary research project, which has been investigating the effectiveness of applying text classification technology to a large CSCL corpus that has been analyzed by human coders using a theory-based multidimensional coding scheme. We report promising results and include an in-depth discussion of important issues such as reliability, validity, and efficiency that should be considered when deciding on the appropriateness of adopting a new technology such as TagHelper tools. One major technical contribution of this work is a demonstration that an important piece of the work towards making text classification technology effective for this purpose is designing and building linguistic pattern detectors, otherwise known as features, that can be extracted reliably from texts and that have high predictive power for the categories of discourse actions that the CSCL community is interested in

COLLABORATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION PROCESSES

Institutional and Behavioral Economics,

Characterisation of collaborative decision making processes

This paper deals with the collaborative decision making induced or facilitated by Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and their impact on decisional systems. After presenting the problematic, we analyse the collaborative decision making and define the concepts related to the conditions and forms of collaborative work. Then, we explain the mechanisms of collaborative decision making with the specifications and general conditions of collaboration using the modelling formalism of the GRAI method. Each specification associated to the reorganisation of the decisional system caused by the collaboration is set to the notion of decision-making centre. Finally, we apply this approach to the e-maintenance field, strongly penetrated by the ICTs, where collaborations are usual. We show that the identified specifications allow improving the definition and the management of collaboration in e-maintenance

Distributed Processes, Distributed Cognizers and Collaborative Cognition

Cognition is thinking; it feels like something to think, and only those who can feel can think. There are also things that thinkers can do. We know neither how thinkers can think nor how they are able do what they can do. We are waiting for cognitive science to discover how. Cognitive science does this by testing hypotheses about what processes can generate what doing (“know-how”) This is called the Turing Test. It cannot test whether a process can generate feeling, hence thinking -- only whether it can generate doing. The processes that generate thinking and know-how are “distributed” within the heads of thinkers, but not across thinkers’ heads. Hence there is no such thing as distributed cognition, only collaborative cognition. Email and the Web have spawned a new form of collaborative cognition that draws upon individual brains’ real-time interactive potential in ways that were not possible in oral, written or print interactions

Collaborative wireless sensor networks in industrial and business processes

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) create the technological basis for building pervasive, large-scale distributed systems, which can sense their environment in great detail, communicate the relevant information via the wireless medium, reason collectively upon the observed situation and react according to the application-specific goals. Embedding sensing, processing and communication in one tiny device (the sensor node or simply mote), which can subsequently collaborate with peers and build a self-organizing, self-healing network, stimulates a long list of applications from various domains, ranging from environmental monitoring to industrial processes, and even further to cognitive robotic systems or space exploration. At first glance the complexity of such applications is overwhelming, given the serious resource limitations of sensor nodes, in terms of computational power, storage space, radio performance and battery power. However, WSNs have a unique feature that balances the inherent resource limitations: the ability of in-network collaboration at scale. Through collaboration WSNs can organize efficiently, prolong system lifetime, handle dynamics, detect and correct errors, all with the final goal of eventually executing reliably the user application. Following this line, researchers devised an impressive number of collaborative WSN algorithms and protocols in recent years. Significant progress has also been made on the market side, so that nowadays we can claim that WSNs are no longer just lab prototypes. Standardization initiatives (such as IEEE 802.15.4) are being put into practice and the general industry trend strongly suggests that the epoch of pioneering research in building and experimenting with “motes” is approaching an end. It is now the logical time for system integration and for creating bridges to connected fields. This thesis focuses on WSN integration in industrial and business processes, and, more specifically, on exploring collaborative techniques to make WSNs more reliable, intelligent, effective and easy-to-use in industry-related scenarios

A Collaborative Kalman Filter for Time-Evolving Dyadic Processes

We present the collaborative Kalman filter (CKF), a dynamic model for collaborative filtering and related factorization models. Using the matrix factorization approach to collaborative filtering, the CKF accounts for time evolution by modeling each low-dimensional latent embedding as a multidimensional Brownian motion. Each observation is a random variable whose distribution is parameterized by the dot product of the relevant Brownian motions at that moment in time. This is naturally interpreted as a Kalman filter with multiple interacting state space vectors. We also present a method for learning a dynamically evolving drift parameter for each location by modeling it as a geometric Brownian motion. We handle posterior intractability via a mean-field variational approximation, which also preserves tractability for downstream calculations in a manner similar to the Kalman filter. We evaluate the model on several large datasets, providing quantitative evaluation on the 10 million Movielens and 100 million Netflix datasets and qualitative evaluation on a set of 39 million stock returns divided across roughly 6,500 companies from the years 1962-2014.Comment: Appeared at 2014 IEEE International Conference on Data Mining (ICDM

Sketch-Based Interfaces to Support Collaborative Conceptual Design Learning

In order to gain a better understanding of online collaborative conceptual design processes this paper investigates how student designers make use of Lyceum, a shared virtual synchronous environment when engaged in conceptual design. The software enables users to talk to each other and share sketches when they are remotely located. The paper describes a novel methodology for observing and analysing collaborative design processes by adapting the concepts of grounded theory. Rather than concentrating on narrow aspects of the final artefacts, emerging 'themes' are generated that provide a broader picture of collaborative design process and context descriptions. Findings on the themes of 'grounding – mutual understanding' and 'support creativity' complement findings from other research, while important themes associated with 'near-synchrony' have not been emphasised in other research. From the study, a series of design recommendations are made for the development of tools to support online computer-supported collaborative work in design using a shared virtual environment

A Study on the Impact of ICT on Collaborative Learning Processes in Libyan Higher Education

This paper presents the conclusions of a study on the impact of ICT on collaborative learning processes in Libyan Higher Education (LHE). The quantitative analysis of the answers to a questionnaire (completed by Libyan full-time lecturers at the universities of Tripoli, Garyounis, Gharian and Ezawia) shows the necessity to design and develop more classroom activities and interactive online applications, enabling the development of team-building skills required by employers. The influence of limited Internet bandwidths in Libya on collaborative learning processes in HE is then presented. It is obvious that HE institutions need to develop proactive strategies that envisage and anticipate learners‟ future learning needs and requirements in this transition period of moving towards an increasingly digitalized, networked and knowledge-based society. The paper also contains the analysis of a SWOT model considering the factors that must be considered in relation to collaborative learning within the university teaching process, such as intelligent multimedia, Internet technologies, and knowledge management. The employment of modern technology will enable the development of innovative and inspiring collaborative learning environments where lecturers are expert designers of intellectual experiences for students, who become active participants to the learning processes

Collaborative Environments. Considerations Concerning Some Collaborative Systems

It is obvious, that all collaborative environments (workgroups, communities of practice, collaborative enterprises) are based on knowledge and between collaboration and knowledge management there is a strong interdependence. The evolution of information systems in these collaborative environments led to the sudden necessity to adopt, for maintaining the virtual activities and processes, the latest technologies/systems, which are capable to support integrated collaboration in business services. In these environments, portal-based IT platforms will integrate multi-agent collaborative systems, collaborative tools, different enterprise applications and other useful information systems.collaboration, collaborative environments, knowledge management, collaborative systems, portals, knowledge portals, agile development of portals