Meditative dialogue: A tool for engaging students in collaborative learning processes

Aim/Purpose: This article addresses the lack of research on BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) PhD students’ experiences in collaborative learning processes. It aims to fill this gap by using collaborative autoethnography to analyze the experiences of four BIPOC doctoral students who participated as co-researchers in a year-long collaborative program evaluation self-study of their academic program. Background: The authors discuss their experience in a student leadership role in the collaborative program evaluation process of their doctoral program as a form of collaborative learning, how their identities influenced the processes they participated in, and the themes of what they learned during the evaluation process. The article ends with recommendations to improve the experience and impact of BIPOC doctoral students’ participation and better align the skills learned at the PhD level with the broader job market. Methodology: The study uses the qualitative method of collaborative autoethnography to analyze the perspectives and experiences of four BIPOC doctoral students within a broader cultural context. Contribution: This article provides insight on how to improve the experience of BIPOC doctoral students’ participation in the collaborative process and better align the skills learned at the PhD level with the broader job market. It provides four recommendations: first, align student training with job market realities; second, dismantle systemic and structural barriers; third, respond to the effects of social location; and last, negotiate power through consensus building. Findings: Five themes emerged from the reflections. First, consider how important planning and good communication are to the collaborative learning process in terms of preparation, group dynamics, and resource availability. Second, power disparities existed among faculty, student researchers, and committees. Third, consider how the researchers’ identities affected their interpretations and interactions at the individual, group, and organizational levels. Fourth, the importance of negotiating between diverse perspectives and interests; and finally, what they gained from participating in the collaborative review process. Recommendations for Practitioners: The authors provided four recommendations for improving the experience of BIPCO doctoral students’ participation in the collaborative process and better aligning the skills learned at the PhD level with the broader job market. First, align student training with job market realities. Second, dismantle systemic and structural barriers. Third, respond to the effects of social location. Last, negotiating power through consensus building. Recommendation for Researchers: Researchers should work toward creating an accepted framework for the collaborative program evaluation process to provide a road map of the journey instead of just providing the compass. Additionally, they should design and conduct a full-scale collaborative program evaluation to engage BIPOC students from the beginning. Finally, they should conduct a participatory-collaborative-inclusive academic program evaluation at different levels of higher education. Impact on Society: This article provides insight on how to improve the experience of BIPOC doctoral students’ participation in the collaborative process. It also demonstrates how collaborative learning assists in aligning the skills learned at the PhD level with the broader job market. Future Research: Future research should work toward creating an accepted framework for the collaborative program evaluation process to provide a road map of the journey instead of just providing the compass. Additionally, it should design and conduct a full-scale collaborative program evaluation to engage BIPOC students from the beginning. Finally, future research could conduct a participatory-collaborative-inclusive academic program evaluation at different levels of 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.

Early CAI efforts focused on the transmission or delivery of knowledge to the student. Subsequent work in intelligent tutoring systems took a more cognitive approach and attempted to emulate the behavior of skilled human tutors via software. More recent work has focused on collaborative learning processes, and the idea of a collaboratory as a virtual space for work. This paper describes a design process to support the development and use of collaborative learning technologies. This process, the Learning Collaboratory Design Framework (LuCiDiFy), integrates methods and concepts from cognitive systems engineering, theories of learning and instruction, distributed computing and computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL). LuCiDiFy is instantiated in an actual software testbed, the Collaborative Learning Environment for Operational Systems (CLEOS). CLEOS is a collaboratory for teachers, students and practitioners in the physical sciences, and in particular for NMR spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction experiments. CLEOS includes two virtual instrument tutorials, CVS (Collaborative Virtual Spectrometer) and VXRD (Virtual X-Ray Diffractometer); an asynchronous messaging system, the Question Board (QB); a project-based design environment, TOSP (Tool for Organizing and Supervising Projects); and an architecture for developing collaborative apprenticeship learning systems, CALOT (Collaborative Apprenticeship Learning Object Toolkit); an authoring environment, BAUEN (Basic AUthoring ENvironment); and a collaborative multi-user domain (MUD) infrastructure, MudSpot.

Purpose One of the major issues faced by academic health science centers (AHSCs) is the need for mechanisms to foster the integration of research, clinical, and educational activities to achieve the vision of evidence-informed decision making (EIDM) and optimal client care. The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach This paper synthesizes literature on organizational learning and collaboration, evidence-informed organizational decision making, and learning-based organizations to derive insights concerning the nature of effective workplace learning in AHSCs. Findings An evidence-informed model of collaborative workplace learning is proposed to aid the alignment of research, clinical, and educational functions in AHSCs. The model articulates relationships among AHSC academic functions and sub-functions, cross-functional activities, and collaborative learning processes, emphasizing the importance of cross-functional activities in enhancing collaborative learning processes and optimizing EIDM and client care. Cross-functional activities involving clinicians, researchers, and educators are hypothesized to be a primary vehicle for integration, supported by a learning-oriented workplace culture. These activities are distinct from interprofessional teams, which are clinical in nature. Four collaborative learning processes are specified that are enhanced in cross-functional activities or teamwork: co-constructing meaning, co-learning, co-producing knowledge, and co-using knowledge. Practical implications The model provides an aspirational vision and insight into the importance of cross-functional activities in enhancing workplace learning. The paper discusses the conceptual and empirical basis to the model, its contributions and limitations, and implications for AHSCs. Originality/value The model's potential utility for health care is discussed, with implications for organizational culture and the promotion of cross-functional activities.

Collaborate like expert designers: An exploratory study of the role of individual preparation activity on students' collaborative learning

Along with the rapid development of network education, virtual learning community emerges its apparent advantages continuously. Collaborative learning has played an important role in educational patterns. Based on the constructivism learning theory, this paper designs a collaborative virtual learning community on the subject of Software Engineering. Moreover, the learner’s online action is a force to be reckoned with. In view of collaborative learning processes are very important, the group member’s learning characters such as sending or watching the amount of message are extracted to evaluate their usual performances. Then they can be visualized in forms of chart or data report for learners, to the effect that urge learners into adjusting themselves duly.KeywordsConstructivismCollaborativeLearning processVisualizationPerformanceAlgorithm

In an attempt to explore the revision process, the Journal of Education invited a writer, who is also a researcher into the writing process, to keep a journal while he was revising a novel and several pieces of nonfiction. We also invited a researcher into the writing process, who is also a writer, to comment on the writer's journal and to point out the classroom implications of the writer's testimony. The writer is Donald Murray, a Professor of English at the University of New Hampshire. During the period when he kept this journal September 19, 1979 to December 8, 1979 he revised a novel of more than 300 manuscript pages and revised four pieces of nonfiction. Donald Graves, the researcher, is Associate Professor of Education at the University of New Hampshire and Director of the Writing Process Laboratory. He is now working full time on an NIE-funded study of the writing processes of six-, seven-, eight-, and nine-year-old children. Through the direct observation of children with video and hand recordings, he and his two research associates, Susan Sowers and Lucy Calkins, are completing the second year of daily observation of sixteen children as they write, and collecting large group data from children in nine different classrooms in the same two year period.

Learning management systems (LMSs) provide their users with the appropriate environments and tools to author, monitor and engage in collaborative learning activities. The unstructured collaboration spaces and the domain-independent interfaces of those platforms, pose restrictions to the analysis and the evaluation of the collaboration learning process. In this work is presented the design of an advising system, which aims to guide the users of the collaborative activities in a lesson in a LMS, by issuing recommendations and advices on the collaborative learning process. The system uses a fuzzy model to evaluate the learning behaviors of the learners and groups in the collaborative activities across several dimensions. An intelligent agent issues advices and recommendations to the learners and groups of the lesson based on their learning behaviors. The system aims to facilitate management of the collaborative activities in a LMS, by advising the instructors on the design of the collaborative learning experiences and also the learners on self-regulating their learning behaviors. The intelligent system has been partially developed using the Java Agent Development Framework (JADE) for the collaborative activities of Learning Activity Management System (LAMS).

The field of forestry has changed substantially in the last 100 years as scientists and managers have grappled with ways to best manage forests and adapt to changing knowledge, needs, and climates. We believe a path forward may be through using an ecosystem wellbeing framework where both community and environment wellbeing must be achieved to meet ecosystem wellbeing goals. To achieve this, we used a collaborative learning process where managers, researchers, tribes, and stakeholders engage with one another to ask and answer questions about options and effects of management choices. We also propose the use of the field of ethnoforestry, or a people-focused forest management, as the necessary way to apply the input, knowledge, and feedback gained through the collaborative learning process. We offer two examples of ways ethnoforestry is being tested on the Olympic Peninsula through an operational-scale experiment that seeks to meet the needs of communities and the environment, while producing revenue for trust land beneficiaries and meeting late seral habitat requirements.

An optimized group formation scheme to promote collaborative problem-based learning

This paper studies how the integration of group awareness tools in the knowledge management system called KnowCat (Knowledge Catalyser), which promotes collaborative knowledge construction, may both foster the students' perception about the meaningfulness of visualization of group awareness information and promote better collaborative processes as well as enhance better task performance. Forty‐seven university students participated in a research study, where one group of 23 students used KnowCat without the awareness console (non‐awareness group); the other 24 students used KnowCat with the awareness console (awareness group). Both groups used KnowCat during one semester. Data analysis revealed that the awareness group means were higher than those of the non‐awareness group in terms of participation, cognitive and metacognitive learning activities, and task performance. Moreover, students revealed that knowing what, where and how much their classmates were contributing acted as positive feedback by encouraging participation and orienting their own behaviour and their contribution to the collaborative work. In this paper, we claim that the visualization group awareness information in KnowCat, a utility allowing students to visualize and track what, where, how much and how often other participants contributed to the KnowCat knowledge area, had a positive impact on the students' collaborative behaviour.

Role play has been widely used as an instructional technique in promoting collaborative learning. The use of smartphones to record role playing and upload videos on social media is also deemed as an important element that determines the occurrence of collaborative learning. The collaborative learning process in filmed role plays on social media is analyzed through a simple framework which was built on earlier work on the subject; consisting of positive interdependence, promoting interaction, individual accountability, interpersonal and small group skills, and group processing. The research was conducted specifically on hospitality students for practical skills are in high demand in the industry. Filmed role plays and collaborative learning are considered as a fitting media to support the mastery of skills. Fourteen students were asked to create role play videos on hotel check in and check out situations and upload them on YouTube. Qualitative data were obtained from a focus group interview and YouTube comments. The results showed that filmed role plays on social media foster collaborative learning, with reports of relatively high positive interdependence and promotive interaction. The use of social media on filmed role playing was also reported as fun and enjoyable, which appeals more to students’ interests in demonstrating collaborative learning.

The article reviewed a selection of research in the field of foreign language teaching into mobile assisted collaborative language learning (Collaborative MALL) – the practice of applying mobile technologies, e.g., applications on mobile phones and laptops, in language teaching context. This review aimed to examine: (1) popular theoretical frameworks previous collaborative MALL research was based upon; (2) merits of applying collaborative MALL in language classroom; (3) strengths and shortcomings of previous studies’ research design and (4) implications for future research as well as for language teaching practice. The findings indicated that three common pedagogical approaches in collaborative MALL studies were game-based, task-based and seamless learning. The confirmed educational affordances of collaborative MALL systems involved facilitating language learners’ collaborative learning process, personalizing learning experience, improving linguistic achievement and enhancing learning motivation/autonomy. Previous research was additionally found to have strong theoretical frameworks, well-designed mobile applications, and examination of both learners’ linguistic improvement and their attitudes towards the technology implementation. However, several methodological weaknesses in previous studies were also identified, e.g., lacking control group in experimental design, insufficient information about the language test format and unclear grading process. Further research with more rigorous research design is warranted to explore the efficacy of collaborative MALL in augmenting learners’ linguistic accomplishments with new mobile applications and in different educational contexts.

This study aims to systematically review the learning management model on cloud computing system using collaborative learning and positive coaching. The author uses the literature review to synthesize research as the main process to study related documents, books, research studies, and articles both domestically and internationally. They are selected by purposive sampling for 69 topics. The documents are analyzed by systematic review. This study is a qualitative study and uses content analysis by using keywords to discover three issues as follows: Cloud computing, Collaborative learning, and Positive coaching. From the results of this study, Cloud computing comprises six components: Cloud learning content, Cloud collaboration, Cloud communication, Cloud creation, Cloud presentation, and Cloud evaluation. The collaborative learning process has five steps as follows: Engagement phase, Exploration phase, Transformation phase, Presentation phase, and Reflection phase. Positive coaching comprises five process as follows: Construct the positive relation, Set a clear and challenging goal, Implement a challenging goal to smooth practice, Set a more challenging goal and practice smoothly, and Evaluate and expand the experience, reward the outcome and discovery.

Distance education programs are expanding to meet the needs of a growing population of adult learners. The interactive television (ITV) classroom, a relatively recent technological innovation made possible with compressed digital video (CDV) transmission, has been found to be an effective teaching tool with mature students. A review of the literature suggests that ITV, although in its infancy, has the potential to overcome the pedagogical difficulties inherent in more traditional distance education technology based on audio alone. The results of a recent study conducted in graduate education courses by the authors at the University of New Hampshire indicate that adult students have generally positive attitudes toward their ITV classes. Essential to the success of distance education programs which use ITV is the training of both professors and students who will be involved in this emerging technology.