Emerging and scripted roles in computer-supported collaborative learning

Emerging and scripted roles pose an intriguing approach to analysing and facilitating CSCL. The concept of emerging roles provides a perspective on how learners structure and self-regulate their CSCL processes. Emerging roles appear to be dynamic over longer periods of time in relation to learners’ advancing knowledge, but are often unequally distributed in ad hoc CSCL settings, e.g. a learner being the ‘typist’ and another being the ‘thinker’. Empirical findings show that learners benefit from structuring or scripting CSCL. Scripts can specify roles and facilitate role rotation for learners to equally engage in relevant learning roles and activities. Scripted roles can, however, collide with emerging roles and therefore need to be carefully attuned to the advancing capabilities of the learners

Peer-assessment in een Wiki: het effect van gestructureerde peer feedback op het proces en product van groepswerk

Deze studie gaat dieper in op de invloed van peer-assessment op het proces en het product van een groepsopdracht. Meer specifiek vergelijkt dit onderzoek ongestructureerde peer-feedback met gestructureerde peer-feedback. Gedurende 3 weken, beschikte de experimentele conditie over een gestructureerd stappenplan, aangereikt door de instructieverantwoordelijke, om feedback te geven terwijl de controleconditie volledig vrij was. De participanten waren eerstejaars studenten Pedagogische wetenschappen (N=190), onderverdeeld in subgroepen van 5 studenten, die samen een wiki construeerden. Voorlopige resultaten tonen aan dat er geen significant verschil is op het uiteindelijk resultaat wanneer studenten zonder begeleiding of training een stappenplan wel of niet gebruiken. Verdere analyses, die in detail de hoeveelheid en kwaliteit van de feedback zullen bestuderen, zijn gepland

Peer Assessment in a Wiki: Product Improvement, Students’ Learning And Perception Regarding Peer Feedback

AbstractThe present study examines the added value of peer assessment in a computer-supported collaborative learning environment (CSCL) in higher education by focusing on (1) the learning effect, (2) wiki product improvement and (3) students’ perception of peer feedback in a CSCL-environment. The present study involved two conditions: structured peer feedback (S-PFB) and non-structured (control). The results do not indicate a significant learning effect between pretest and posttest or between the conditions. However, for both conditions the peer feedback process improved significantly the quality of the wiki product from draft to final version, although no significant differences between the control and the experimental group (S-PFB) were found. Furthermore, the S-PFB group adopted a more critical attitude when providing and receiving peer feedback. The S-PFB group also perceived the received peer feedback as being more profound and detailed

Exploring pre-established performed roles in a networked learning activity: A sociomaterial study case

This paper presents the first part of a wider sociomaterial research, which aims at exploring alternative ways to look at and analyse the learning activity in a university course, which would lead to an understanding of what learning activity emerges from a learning design, and therefore, to the improvement of the own learning design by promoting decisions for informed change and innovation. This study analyses a university undergraduate pre-service teachers course run by a professor and followed by 58 students divided into 8 workgroups. The course includes networked learning activities, where the connections between three basic structures (cooperative work, activity-based learning and pre-established work roles) are cornerstone, therefore: students perform different pre-established roles in a workgroup and develop week tasks related to the topics of the course (ICT for primary schools). The main goal of this paper is to visualise and analyse students' learning activities based on pre-determined roles through VNA and the students' perceptions on the roles, which is one of the three basic structures mentioned before, as well as its comparison with the declared learning design. As methodology for this sociomaterial research, we followed a mixed analysis approach that combines data from the learning design of the course, the documented performance of the different roles during the course (blog posts) presented in the form of networked maps through the technique of visual network analysis, and the students’ questionnaire on the perceptions of those roles. As examples of the performed roles, the cases of the Analyst and the Journalist were studied from that threefold data approach, but we reflect on the general aspects of all of them. The results of these analyses show that the students’ documented performance of the roles highly corresponds to the learning design, and suggest that there are some operational chains between roles -that would be confirmed by further studies-. The bias of starting from a given previous structure (the learning design and the students' documented performance) should be considered as a limitation for a sociomaterial research like this one, but a first step of a broader analysis; therefore, future studies will explore other perspectives. As conclusions, we stress that the visual network analysis may be a fruitful approach to learning design and learning activity in a more complementary way to other types of traditional analysis

Il corso di laurea interateneo Scienze e Tecniche Psicologiche di Sapienza e Unitelma Sapienza: MOODLE a supporto della partecipazione attiva e collaborativa

In questo contributo si descrive il corso di Laurea in Scienze e Tecniche Psicologiche erogato a partire dal 2017 da Sapienza e Unitelma Sapienza. Si tratta di un corso interamente online in cui si è deciso di integrare l’e-Learning classico con un approccio partecipativo e collaborativo, salvaguardando i punti di forza dell’uno e dell’altro modello. A tal fine, il modello poggia su tre pilastri fondamentali: progettazione teoricamente ancorata, team esperto di docenti e tutor, un Learning Management System flessibile e ricco come Moodle. Verrà quindi descritto ciascuno di questi aspetti, con particolare riferimento al modo in cui l’ambiente tecnologico ha reso possibile l’armonizzazione di didattica erogativa e partecipativa. Si riportano poi i principali dati riferiti al primo anno appena concluso, per sottolineare infine punti di forza e direzioni di sviluppo previste per l’anno in corso, a partire da ulteriori utilizzi delle risorse e attività che Moodle mette a disposizione per gestire flessibilmente un modello di e-learning puro ispirato ai principi del socio-costruttivismo

An example of innovative university teaching: the model of Constructive and Collaborative Professional Participation

[EN] This contribution presents a blended course model called Constructive and Collaborative Professional Participation (CCPP), developed since 2005. We will describe theories of reference, course structure, activities performed and methods adopted. Starting from a socio-constructivist framework, both online individual and group activities and offline individual and group activities were organized together with Role Taking, "expert" and "Jigsaw" groups inspired by the Aronson method, web-forum and in presence discussions aimed at building various products. The model has been implemented in university courses about Psychology of e-learning and involves companies from the field to professionalize the activities. Academic and business tutors have been purposely trained, to support student participation. Following the Design Based Research methodology, at the end of each edition various kinds of data were collected: questionnaires, interviews, and focus groups with the students and feedback from the tutors and the companies involved. The course trained students on skills related to the syllabus, together with communication, organizational and self-assessment skills. Our results also showed how it was possible to develop identity positioning, in particular the transition from positions as students towards professional positioning.Di Maso, R.; Ligorio, MB. (2019). An example of innovative university teaching: the model of Constructive and Collaborative Professional Participation. En HEAD'19. 5th International Conference on Higher Education Advances. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 415-421. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAD19.2019.9293OCS41542

Collaborative Design and Build Activity in a CS1 Course: A Practical Experience Report

peer reviewedShaping students’ mind to structure and solve problem, in an Introduction to Programming course for first year students, takes time, leading some students to get demotivated before they actually master this new skill. This paper reports on a Collaborative Design and Build activity dedicated to reinforce students’ interest and improve their skills by sequentially solving problems in teams, through a real-life inspired scenario. Two sessions of the activity were organized during the semester. This paper carefully describes the activity design. It also presents and discusses results showing that students’ productions got more accurate across the sessions, leading many participants to outperform in solving problems in the final exam

Facilitating Synchronous Collaborative Writing with a Collaboration Script

A significant part of work in industry is carried out in co-located or virtual teams. Therefore, training information systems (IS) students to collaborate both face-to-face and online is necessary. Findings from computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) research suggest that students need additional support to learn to collaborate effectively. Such support can be provided through collaboration scripting. In this paper, we discuss the effects of a collaboration script on the learning process in the context of an online synchronous collaborative writing task. The study employs an experimental design. The results demonstrate that scripted groups spent most effort on coordination and planning, while unscripted groups used most effort on contributing to the case solution. Closely following the collaboration script improved the quality of learners’ discussions. However, the groups who chose to only partly follow the script primarily settled with quick consensus-building during the discussion phase, much the same way as unscripted groups

Testing the Effects of Adaptive Learning Courseware on Student Performance: An Experimental Approach

An increasing number of college and university courses are being offered in an online format. Even for courses offered face-to-face, instructors are increasingly turning toward use of online platforms to help with student learning, especially for courses with high enrollment. This study tests the efficacy of adaptive learning platforms in a sample of undergraduate students in a large urban university, using an experimental design that compares the learning outcomes of students in classrooms that used an adaptive learning tool to those who did not. The results indicate that better performing students, particularly female students, benefit the most from using adaptive learning tools