Designing Wise Communities that Engage in Creative Problem Solving: An Analysis of an Online Design Model

Addressing the conference theme of “design thinking,” this paper discusses an instructional design model, WisCom (Wisdom Communities) that we developed to build a wise learning community online, to solve open-ended, ill-structured problems such as solving a health crisis or an environmental disaster, which requires the exchange of multiple perspectives, inter-disciplinary thinking, creative problem solving, and social construction of knowledge. Based on socio-constructivist, sociocultural theories of learning and mediated cognition (Vygotsky, 1978), distributed cognition (Hutchins, 1995; Pea, 1993), group cognition (Stahl, 2006), research on how people learn (Bransford, Vye, Bateman, Brophy, & Roselli, 2004), and distance education design principles (Moore & Kearsley, 2011), WisCom specifies three components that must be designed to create a wise community online that engages in creative problem solving and transformational learning: (1) a cohesive learning community involved in negotiation of meaning and collaborative learning; (2) knowledge innovation – moving the learning community from data, information, and knowledge to wisdom, providing opportunities for reflection, sharing of perspectives, knowledge construction and preservation within the community, and (3) learner support and e-mentoring to achieve the communities’ learning goals

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

Design-activity-sequence: A case study and polyphonic analysis of learning in a digital design thinking workshop

In this case study, we report on the outcomes of a one-day workshop on design thinking attended by participants from the Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning conference in Philadelphia in 2017. We highlight the interactions between the workshop design, structured as a design thinking process around the design of a digital environment for design thinking, and the diverse backgrounds and interests of its participants. Data from in-workshop reflections and post-workshop interviews were analyzed using a novel set of analytical approaches, a combination the facilitators made by possible by welcoming participants as coresearchers

Collaborative Problem-Based Learning in Online Environments

Thesis (PhD) - Indiana University, School of Education, 2006Collaborative problem-based learning (PBL) in online environments has become one of the important areas for research with the rapid growth of online learning and the need for innovation in instruction. Although current literature provides interesting and useful insights, it does not provide practical guidelines for designing and implementing collaborative PBL in online environments. Thus, this study sought to provide a first step in creating a more comprehensive and useful knowledge base to guide practitioners, such as instructors and instructional designers, who design online PBL courses or use the PBL approach in online courses. Utilizing the formative research methodology, which is a kind of qualitative case study, and the grounded theory methodology with multiple case studies, this research examined three graduate-level online courses that utilize collaborative PBL: (1) "Technology: Use and Assessment," (2) "Introduction to Reference," and (3) "Advanced Problems in Librarianship: Collection Development." From each case, two kinds of data were collected: descriptive and evaluative. These data were collected from multiple sources, including interviews, observations, and document review. The data collection began at the start of the Fall 2005 semester and ended about two weeks after the end of the semester. Data analysis was intertwined with data collection. Qualitative data from each case were analyzed using the constant comparative method. Beyond describing what happened in each case, this study identified what worked and did not work well in the collaborative PBL and explored how the collaborative PBL could be improved. Based on cross-case analyses, this study proposed a series of guidelines for designing and implementing collaborative PBL in online environments. They provide practical tips for diverse stages of the design and implementation of online PBL. Researchers are encouraged to test the guidelines in diverse situations to revise and refine them and to develop more comprehensive and practical guidelines for online collaborative PBL

Higher education curriculum ecosystem design

This study focuses on the development of a Design Framework for Higher Education Curriculum Ecosystem design. The study views the world as a digital ecosystem where the physical and the virtual are fully intertwined and function through integrated social and technical architecture working together in a seamless mesh that is persistent and pervasive. This digital ecosystem is an open, flexible, demand driven, self-organising, collaborative environment. It has enhanced individuals’ abilities to connect with other people, share ideas, work collaboratively and form communities. This has inevitably impacted on educational practice in Higher Education. The thesis draws together educational theories, curriculum designs, and concepts drawn from ecological psychology, cognitive apprenticeship, distributed cognition and activity theory, and extends them through the application of a Complexity Science lens. A Complexity Science perspective views the world as comprised of Complex Adaptive Systems. This study explores how authentic learning processes can be scaffolded within a Complex Adaptive System. The iterative development and refinement, through three iterations over six years, of a curriculum ecosystem for a Built Environment Degree Program is used as a case study for the development of a Higher Education curriculum ecosystem exemplar. A Design Framework for a Curriculum Ecosystem for Higher Education which has emerged through this process is presented

An exploration of the cognitive processes of design teams to inform design education and practice

While design is associated with novelty and creativity, few studies have explored the cognitive processes employed during team interactions. Design practice is collaborative where designers work in multidisciplinary teams. Along with the cognitive skills involved in designing, designers also need skills to work in teams, share information, and negotiate decisions. The aim of this study is to understand the cognitive processes used by design teams during the early phases of product design.  This study uses case studies and applies content analysis to examine the conversations of design teams during the problem definition, ideation, and concept development phases of the design process. Creativity has been described in terms of sudden bursts of ideas described as creative leaps and is associated with creative thinking. The findings in this study shows that while creative thinking is essential to creative teams, other cognitive modes such as knowledge processing, critical thinking, and metacognition are engaged in more frequently.  The emphasis of each cognitive process also varies depending on the phase of the design process. These findings have implications for how design students are educated, the skills required and how we promote creativity in design teams

Design Research and Domain Representation

While diverse theories about the nature of design research have been proposed, they are rarely considered in relation to one another across the broader disciplinary field. Discussions of design research paradigms have tended to use overarching binary models for understanding differing knowledge frameworks. This paper focuses on an analysis of theories of design research and the use of Web 3 and open content systems to explore the potential of building more relational modes of conceptual representation. The nature of this project is synthetic, building upon the work of other design theorists and researchers. A number of theoretical frameworks will be discussed and examples of the analysis and modelling of key concepts and information relationships, using concept mapping software, collaborative ontology building systems and semantic wiki technologies will be presented. The potential of building information structures from content relationships that are identified by domain specialists rather than the imposition of formal, top-down, information hierarchies developed by information scientists, will be considered. In particular the opportunity for users to engage with resources through their own knowledge frameworks, rather than through logically rigorous but largely incomprehensible ontological systems, will be explored in relation to building resources for emerging design researchers. The motivation behind this endeavour is not to create a totalising meta-theory or impose order on the ‘ill structured’ and ‘undisciplined’, domain of design. Nor is it to use machine intelligence to ‘solve design problems’. It seeks to create dynamic systems that might help researchers explore design research theories and their various relationships with one another. It is hoped such tools could help novice researchers to better locate their own projects, find reference material, identify knowledge gaps and make new linkages between bodies of knowledge by enabling forms of data-poesis - the freeing of data for different trajectories. Keywords: Design research; Design theory; Methodology; Knowledge systems; Semantic web technologies.</p

Instructional scaffolding in online social collaborative learning environment for nurturing engineering students' knowledge construction level

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of Instructional Scaffolding (IS) on an online Social Collaborative Learning (SCL) environment upon engineering students' knowledge construction (KC) level. In addition., this study also investigate on how the IS cognitively steers engineering students towards KC and helps them reach a higher level of KC. This study then proposed a KC model in an online SCL environment integrated with IS that could nurture engineering students' knowledge construction level. A questionnaire, achievement test, posting scripts from Facebook discussions, and structured interviews were used for data collection. The methodology comprised two designs: a quasi-experimental for the quantitative approach, and a case study for the qualitative approach. The quasi-experimental involved the pre and post-test to be taken by 74 participants from one polytechnic in northern Malaysia to identify the improvement in their knowledge construction level. Meantime, the case study involved a process in providing the detail and depth of exploration in a real situation by obtaining the perceptions and perspectives of 10 engineering students. Content analysis and thematic analysis were used to identify the relationships between codes, themes, and between different levels of themes. A t-test indicated a significant increase in the mean score of the post-test in both of the learning environments, that is, the conventional collaborative learning (CCL) and the SCL environment supported by instructional scaffolding. Nevertheless, the engineering students in the SCL environment showed a significantly higher mean score if compared with those in the CCL environment (pre-test score; 3.05 vs post test score; 13.98). Simultaneously, comparing the combination of results in the percentage of knowledge construction level reveals that engineering students in the control group and in the experimental group demonstrated an increase for each level of knowledge construction whether they were in the CCL or in the SCL environment They illustrated different percentages for scores of argumentative knowledge construction (such as CCL=84.21 , SCL=86.11) and metacognitive knowledge construction (CCL=I3.16, SCL=64.00) between control and experimental group. Through content analysis, eight answer themes that affect engineering students' knowledge construction were identified. Nine answer themes also were identified regarding on how SCL characteristics supported by IS enabled engineering students to reach a higher level of knowledge construction. Based on all these findings, the researcher then produced a holistic knowledge construction model. It comprised the 8 essential elements of impact factors, such as students' cognitive pre-engagement, motivation, engagement and enhancement, explanation and guide, encouragement and praise, determination., comfort and engagement, as well as ease ofthe learning process in the instructional scaffolding strategy model. As a result, it is concluded that IS plays a vital role in the knowledge construction processes in order to help engineering students' construct their knowledge and reach a higher level ofthinking