Strand 2: Building a Virtual Workshop

This paper aims to identify the changes in student behaviors that resulted from the switch from face-to-face (F2F) learning to computer-supported cooperative learning (CSCL) due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. We constructed a triple-dimensional index with “thinking ability improvement”, “horizontal knowledge construction”, and “vertical social relationship evolution” to make comparisons. According to majors, we selected 23 students who registered for entrepreneurship courses from March to June 2019 in F2F and 23 students from March to June 2020 in CSCL formats. We utilized mixed methods, including experimental, content-based, and social network methods, to conduct evaluations. The results show the following: (1) Cooperative learning is beneficial in cultivating creative thinking for both F2F and CSCL groups. (2) The level of knowledge construction was slightly higher in F2F than that in CSCL in general. The effect of F2F learning in the early stage of the course was better, and in the later stage of the class CSCL attained a higher value. (3) For social abilities, the interactions in CSCL were closer than those in the F2F group. F2F cooperative learning was more prone to “fake cooperation” and free-riding behavior, whereas CSCL led to “pan-cooperation” and lacked the in-depth exploration of knowledge. Therefore, this pandemic provides opportunities for cooperative learning with in-depth exploration. CSCL offers sustainable and more hybrid learning activities that allow for the combination of online and offline learning to be experienced according to course contents.

<p>As the title suggests, the concept of Computer-Supported Collaborative Language Learning (CSCLL) adopts and shares many aspects of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL). This article is an attempt to incorporate CSCL in English as a Second Language (ESL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts, and to examine the potential applicability of CSCL in ESL and EFL classes. The goal of this article is to examine potential effects of CSCL in ESL and EFL. To validate its usefulness, the theoretical framework of CSCL and the effects of collaboration in language learning are introduced. With guidelines for task design, a sample of CSCLL is presented. The specific description of the sample is designed to enhance the ESL and EFL teachers' understanding and to motivate them to use CSCLL in their teaching contexts. Practical tips for classroom implementation will be also included. In addition, potential benefits and limitations are discussed. Among these are increased authenticity, eliciting students' active participation and interaction, flexibility, reduced anxiety and higher motivation, scaffolding and collaboration, learnercenteredness, developing electronic literacy and promoting ownership and personal responsibility by webpublishing. Affordability, practicality and heavy work-load for the teachers can be considered as potential limitations. Finally, pedagogical implications for teachers and researchers are suggested.</p>

Learners benefit from collaboration because it triggers effective interaction processes such as externalization, elicitation and negotiation of knowledge. In order to communicate effectively, learners need to have a certain representation of their peers' knowledge. We refer to the process of building and maintaining a representation of the peers' knowledge as peer knowledge modeling. The present thesis aim at making contributions to the fields of computer support collaborative learning and work (CSCL, CSCW) on three main levels. First, as an empirical contribution, we investigate the process of peer knowledge modeling in the context of CSCL. Our main research question inquires the effects of a socio-cognitive support, providing co-learners with cues about their peer's prior knowledge, on collaborative learning outcomes and processes. In an empirical study (the KAT experiment), university students (N=64) participated in a remote computer-mediated dyadic learning scenario. They were provided (or not) with a visual representation of their partner's prior-knowledge level through a Knowledge Awareness Tool (KAT). Results showed that the KAT enhances co-learners' collaborative learning gain. This effect appears to be mediated by the positive effect of the KAT on participants' accuracy in estimating their peer's knowledge. Analyses on the process level showed that participants of the KAT condition produce more elaborated utterances. KAT condition dyads' interactions are more focused on knowledge negotiation, whereas the control condition dyads are mainly focused on task completion. The KAT seems to provide a sensitizing metacognitive support, structuring and regulating the collaboration by helping co-learners to cope with their knowledge gaps and discrepancies. Second, as a methodological contribution, we examine the affordance of dual eye tracking techniques as an innovative methodology to investigate, on a deeper level, the socio-cognitive processes underlying collaboration. We introduce DUET (DUal Eye-Tracking), a method using a multimodal technique to collect rich data featuring peers' synchronized gaze patterns, verbal interaction and potentially activities. We examine the main research applications of DUET and exemplify them with analyses conducted in the context of the KAT experiment. DUET method appears to be a promising technique to investigate collaborative processes on a deep level. Finally, as a third computational contribution, we built upon micro-level analyses of the verbal referencing process to introduce and test REGARD, a computational model allowing to automatically detect verbal references and locate the specific object of reference. The results of the test show a reasonably good accuracy of the REGARD algorithm to detect and associate verbal references to objects of reference. We discuss the design and research application of the REGARD model for the field of CSCL, CSCW and more generally HCI.

Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) is a pedagogical approach wherein learning takes place via social interaction using a computer or through the Internet. This kind of learning is characterized by the sharing and construction of knowledge among participants. This knowledge is shared through communication technologies embedded in CSCL systems. However in the context of globalization and the expansion of the internet and Information Technology (IT), communication becomes intercultural, so a complex and important dimension is added to CSCL and brings a new type of knowledge, socio-cultural knowledge, that needs to be shared and then presents new challenges. Therefore, in intercultural collaborative learning settings, we need to get and ensure better interaction, to get better learning. Better interaction is reached by promoting motivation to learn in groups, and this is obtained by enhancing user satisfaction which is achieved by the development of tailored CSCL tools to each user according to her socio-cultural background. Adapting the CSCL system to the culture of each participant will allow and facilitate group decision-making in the collaborative learning activity, as we take into account socio-cultural specificities of each learner, this latter will be more comfortable with the system and the other learners, and can collaborate with them to make decisions about the collaborative solution. So this article addresses the challenges started up by this context, which is how to consider socio-cultural specificities of each learner.

Drawing on knowledge building and social cognitive perspectives on academic literacy, this chapter argues for a design framework of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) environment featured by Knowledge Forum for Chinese tertiary business English students. An initial design study was reported to evaluate the design effect of CSCL environment on collaboration and academic literacy and to further investigate factors facilitating academic literacy development. Four intact classes with 102 Year One students participated in a 12-week project learning in two different learning environments, namely Computer-Supported Collaborative Inquiry Learning (CSCIL) and Regular Project-Based Learning environment (RPBL). Data was obtained from exam results, survey, essay writing quality, and focus group interviews. Four dimensions of academic literacy were identified and rated. MANOVA analyses showed significant main effects of environment indicating that CSCIL groups have significant higher gains in conceptual understanding and argumentative construction. Contrastive analyses of focus group interview data identify the interplay of social, cognitive, and technological dynamics that facilitate collaborative conceptual understanding and argumentative construction. Implications and further design issues are also discussed.

Computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) is an emerging branch of the learning sciences. It is concerned with studying how people can learn together with the help of computers. As we will see in this chapter, such a simple statement conceals considerable complexity. The interplay of learning with technology turns out to be quite intricate. The inclusion of collaboration, computer mediation, and distance education has problematized the very notion of learning and called into question prevailing assumptions about how to study it. Like many active fields of scientific research, CSCL has a complex relationship to established disciplines, it evolves in ways that are hard to pinpoint, and it includes important contributions that seem incompatible. The field of CSCL has a long history of controversy about its theory, methods, and definition. Furthermore, it is important to view CSCL as a vision of what may be possible with computers and of what kinds of research should be conducted, rather than as an established body of broadly accepted laboratory and classroom practices. We start from some popular understandings of the issues of CSCL and gradually reveal its more complex nature. CSCL Within Education As the study of particular forms of learning, CSCL is intimately concerned with education. It considers all levels of formal education from kindergarten through graduate study as well as informal education, such as in museums.

This article explores how to enrich scaffolding processes among university students using specific Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) software. A longitudinal case study was designed, in which 18 students participated in a 12‐month learning project. During this period the students followed an instructional process, using the CSCL software to support and improve their interaction processes, in particular the processes of giving and receiving assistance. The research analysed the evolution of the quality of the students' interaction processes and their learning results. The effects of the students' participation in the CSCL environment are described in terms of their development of affective, cognitive and metacognitive learning processes. The results showed that the specific activities that students performed while working with the CSCL system triggered specific learning processes, which had a positive incidence on their learning results.

The objectives of this study were to determine how to apply collaborative learning model through a Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) approach for disabled students in vocational schools. The CSCL learning model is a combination of cooperative learning model and the use of computers and the internet as a medium in learning. With increasingly sophisticated technology, individuals in remote locations make it possible to collaborate on-line. Research in the field of Computer Supported Collaborative Learning or commonly referred as CSCL, provides a new experience that Websites is one model that can be used to improve collaboration in learning. Its use in improving collaboration in learning provides an insight that Websites are effectively applicable when it is integrated into learning. As in this study, it was concluded that Collaboration between lecturers and students in using websites provided a good relationship to the improvement of collaboration between lecturers and students. Utilization of this websites made it easy for lecturers and students to share information and interact either in personal or in groups and general. Collaboration activities were not only conducted in the campus environment but anytime and anywhere. The effectiveness and efficiency of using websites as CSCL media with some indicators obtained the assessment of very effective and very good.

A focus on purely individual cognition has set a stage to social construction of knowledge. New learning environments, in many cases supported by computer technology, are often based on collaborating and sharing expertise. As a result research on Computer Supported Collaborative learning (CSCL) environments is a significant and growing field, which actively seeks new methods to resolve the challenges of human learning across diverse levels of interaction in a modern information society. In this chapter we will discuss the concept of collaborative learning and the issues involved in using information and communication technology to support collaborative learning. We begin with the definition of collaboration, which lays the foundation for diverse research perspectives and methodologies on collaborative learning. The chapter also reviews the potential of CSCL environments, and addresses the challenges CSCL environments face.

This study examined technology use in Computer Support for Collaborative Learning (CSCL). A content meta-analysis of empirical CSCL research was carried out to address three research questions: (1) What kinds of technologies are being used in CSCL research, (2) What kinds of collaboration are supported, and (3) What are the contexts of technology supports (e.g., learning domains, educational levels, and pedagogical approaches)? Empirical CSCL studies were selected from seven leading journals of the field. Analyses of a random sample of these studies showed that CSCL applications typically embedded more than one technology in their environments with the most common technology being communication technology. Perhaps not surprisingly then, distributed collaboration was more frequently supported than face-to-face collaboration in CSCL applications. Analyses also showed that CSCL was carried out across a range of disciplines in a variety of pedagogical contexts. Based on the analyses, five different types of technological supports for collaborative learning are proposed.

In this paper, we examine two factors that may influence the use of diagrams in computer-supported collaborative argumentation-based learning: students' preference for and ability to construct and read argumentative diagrams as opposed to argumentative texts, and the complexity level of presented information. Fifty-two high school students and 74 undergraduates completed a questionnaire on preference for argumentative texts or diagrams with different levels of difficulty. The high school students were also asked to construct texts and diagrams. Results show that preference for textual or diagrammatic representation depends on the level of difficulty of the represented information. The results suggest that learning with argumentative diagrams is only perceived to be beneficial with a medium level of information complexity. Sub optimal diagram construction in our previous studies on computer-supported collaborative learning may have been due to the complexity of the information.

New innovations in distance and open learning are ever taking place. However, the pace has been intensified in this direction by the advances in information and communication technology. The innovators and early adopters have been there in all the ages who make these innovations take place and new ideas flourish. The book under review is an effort in the direction of documenting the innovations and experiences in the area of distance and open learning. Spread over 19 chapters in all by different masters of their fields, the book gives a snap shot of the new work being done for furtherance of open and distance learning in different parts of the world.

Impact of pedagogic agent-mediated metacognitive support towards increasing task and group awareness in CSCL

Group Awareness, Learning, and Participation in Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL)

There are many theories useful for framing collaborative-learning research and they may in principle be irreducible to a single theory. Collaborativelearning research explores questions involving numerous distinct—though interacting—phenomena at multiple levels of description. The useful approach may be to clearly distinguish levels such as individual, small-group and community units of analysis, and to differentiate terminology for discussing these different levels. Theory in general has evolved dramatically over the ages, with a trend to extend the unit of cognition beyond the single idea or even the individual mind. Seminal theoretical works influential within collaborative-learning research suggest a post-cognitive approach to group cognition as a complement to analyzing cognition of individuals or of communities of practice. There is no one theory of collaborative learning. Research in collaborative learning is guided by and contributes to a diverse collection of theories. Even the word theory means different things to different researchers and plays various distinct roles within collaborative-learning work. The reading of the history of theory presented here is itself reflective of one theoretical stance among many held, implicitly or explicitly, by collaborative-learning researchers. The nature and uses of theory have changed over history and continue to evolve. The theories most relevant to collaborative learning—in the view developed in this paper—concern the nature of cognition, specifically cognition in collaborating groups. Through history, the analysis of cognition has broadened, from a focus on single concepts (Platonic ideas) or isolated responses to stimulae (behaviorism), to a concern with mental models (cognitivism) and representational artifacts (post-cognitivism). Theories that are more recent encompass cognition distributed across people and tools, situated in contexts, spanning small groups, involved in larger activities and across communities of practice. For collaborativelearning research, theory must take into account interaction in online environments, knowledge building in small groups and cognition at multiple units of analysis. A brief history of theory An important approach to collaborative-learning research is the relatively recent field of computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL). This chapter will focus on that field. CSCL is multi-disciplinary by its nature and because of its origins (see Stahl, Koschmann & Suthers, 2006, for a history of CSCL from a perspective similar to the one here). Consider the name, Computer-supported Collaborative Learning: it combines concerns with computer technology, collaborative social