Cultural ways of constructing knowledge:the role of identities in online group discussions

Learning scientists and the CSCL community have argued that knowledge construction is a process of collective thinking; a process that is simultaneously personal and social that requires group cognition. However, while CSCL researchers have investigated situated knowledge in the process of collective thinking, little work has been done to fully understand how different identification categories play a role in sense-making and knowledge construction. This research, therefore, explores in detail how individuals operationalize identification categories when they engage in group discussions in online learning environments. Results demonstrate that individuals do not experience online learning through only one aspect of their identity. Rather, learning experiences evoke different elements of their identities that are used continuously and simultaneously when they collaborate with each other in the phases of knowledge construction

From conditioning to learning communities: Implications of fifty years of research in e‐learning interaction design

This paper will consider e‐learning in terms of the underlying learning processes and interactions that are stimulated, supported or favoured by new media and the contexts or communities in which it is used. We will review and critique a selection of research and development from the past fifty years that has linked pedagogical and learning theory to the design of innovative e‐learning systems and activities, and discuss their implications. It will include approaches that are, essentially, behaviourist (Skinner and Gagné), cognitivist (Pask, Piaget and Papert), situated (Lave, Wenger and Seely‐Brown), socio‐constructivist (Vygotsky), socio‐cultural (Nardi and Engestrom) and community‐based (Wenger and Preece). Emerging from this review is the argument that effective e‐learning usually requires, or involves, high‐quality educational discourse, that leads to, at the least, improved knowledge, and at the best, conceptual development and improved understanding. To achieve this I argue that we need to adopt a more holistic approach to design that synthesizes features of the included approaches, leading to a framework that emphasizes the relationships between cognitive changes, dialogue processes and the communities, or contexts for e‐learning

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

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

Functional participatory roles in collaborative science learning

Research on roles in collaborative learning has concentrated mainly on roles that are prescribed for students while only limited attention has been devoted to roles that emerge naturally during collaboration. To address this gap, this thesis adopted a situative approach to study the functional participatory roles that emerge spontaneously and are self-enacted by students during collaborative learning and examined the significance of such roles in collaborative learning. Three datasets on students collaborating on inquiry-based science activities in small groups made up the data for the thesis. The role analyses were based on systematic video-observations, including a detailed analysis of emergent roles from videotaped group activities and a subsequent hierarchical cluster analysis to identify student role profiles. These analyses were consolidated further with an in-depth qualitative approach. The thesis consists of three studies. Study I investigated the emergence of functional participatory roles in a computer-supported science inquiry and developed an analytical coding scheme for their analysis. Fine-grained analysis of the video data identified 17 distinct functional participatory roles self-enacted by the students and provided empirical support for the spontaneous, interactive, and dynamically evolving nature of roles in collaborative learning. Study II developed a scalable framework for analysing these emergent roles across a range of collaborative science learning environments. This flexible framework distinguishes between the core roles that resemble each other across different science learning settings and activity-specific roles that are unique to a particular context. Finally, Study III examined the relationships between group achievement and within-group configurations of role profiles. The results revealed striking differences in role configuration between higher- and lower-achieving groups. Taken together, this thesis extend existing understanding of spontaneously self-enacted roles and their significance in collaborative science learning and consolidate methodology in this area.Funktionaaliset osallistumisen roolit luonnontieteiden yhteisöllisessä oppimisessa Roolien tutkimus yhteisöllisessä oppimisessa on pääosin keskittynyt opiskelijoille ennalta määriteltyihin rooleihin, kun taas yhteistyön aikana luontaisesti esiintyviä rooleja on tutkittu vain vähän. Siten tämän väitöskirjan tarkoituksena oli tutkia spontaanisti esiintyviä, opiskelijoiden itsensä omaksumia funktionaalisia osallistumisen rooleja situatiivista näkökulmaa hyödyntäen ja tarkastella näiden roolien merkitystä yhteisöllisessä oppimisessa. Tutkimusaineisto koostui kolmesta luonnontieteiden tutkivan oppimisen aineistosta, joissa opiskelijat toimivat keskenään pienryhmissä. Systemaattiseen videohavainnointiin perustuva roolien tarkastelu sisälsi funktionaalisten osallistumisen roolien yksityiskohtaisen analysoinnin videoaineistosta ja tähän analyysiin pohjautuvan hierarkkisen klusterianalyysin opiskelijoiden rooliprofiilien tunnistamiseksi. Näitä analyyseja syvennettiin laadullisella tutkimusotteella. Väitöskirja koostuu kolmesta osatutkimuksesta. Ensimmäinen tutkimus kohdistui tietokoneavusteisessa luonnontieteiden yhteisöllisessä oppimisessa esiintyvien funktionaalisten osallistumisen roolien tunnistamiseen tutkimuksessa kehitetyn analyysirungon avulla. Videoaineiston yksityiskohtaisella analysoinnilla tunnistettiin 17 erilaista opiskelijoiden omaksumaa roolia. Tutkimus vahvisti myös empiirisesti käsitystä roolien spontaanista, vuorovaikutteisesta ja dynaamisesti kehittyvästä luonteesta yhteisöllisessä oppimisessa. Toisessa osatutkimuksessa kehitettiin skaalautuva viitekehys tällaisten spontaanien roolien analysoimiseksi erilaisista luonnontieteiden yhteisöllisen oppimisen ympäristöistä. Tämä joustava viitekehys koostuu ydinrooleista, jotka ovat yhteneväisiä monien eri luonnontieteiden yhteisöllisen oppimisen ympäristöjen välillä, ja aktiviteettispesifeistä rooleista, jotka ovat omanlaisia tietylle kontekstille. Kolmannessa tutkimuksessa tutkittiin pienryhmien sisäisten rooliprofiilikokoonpanojen yhteyttä ryhmän suoritukseen. Tutkimuksessa havaittiin huomattavia eroja opiskelijoiden rooliprofiileissa paremmin ja heikommin suoriutuneiden ryhmien välillä. Väitöskirja laajentaa ymmärrystä opiskelijoiden spontaanisti omaksumista rooleista ja niiden merkityksestä luonnontieteiden yhteisöllisessä oppimisessa ja tarjoaa metodologisia edistysaskeleita tälle tutkimuskentälle

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