eJournalPlus: Development of a Collaborative Learning System for Constructive and Critical Reading Skills

• Toshio Mochizuki , Senshu University
• Hiroki Oura , The University of Tokyo
• Tomomi Sato , The University of Tokyo
• Toshihisa Nishimori , The University of Tokyo
• Mio Tsubakimoto , The University of Tokyo
• Jun Nakahara , The University of Tokyo
• Yuhei Yamauchi , The University of Tokyo
• Johannson Henrik , SGI Japan, Ltd.
• Ken-ichiro Matsumoto , SGI Japan, Ltd.
• Shin-ichi Watanabe , Microsoft Development, Co.,Ltd.

Best Technology Design Nominee

The authors developed reading support software “eJournalPlus” designed to assist learners in not only reading texts but also constructing their own opinions from it. Since it is difficult for learners to reach a sufficient level of critical reading skills through reading only by themselves, a collaborative learning function was added to allow learners to share their ideas and facilitate discussion in order to assist learners in considering their own opinion more critically and promoting their critical thinking.
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Mobltz: A mobile multimedia tool for informal learning

• Sarah Lewis , Stanford University
• Roy Pea , Stanford University
• Joe Rosen , Stanford University

We describe the design of a mobile media application for informal learning. Mobltz supports multimedia conversations and digital storytelling using mobile phones. Designed to be accessible in places in which a mobile phone may be the only Internet access, it facilitates shared understanding by privileging the “telling” of the story over the final story itself. Stories can be remixed and retold. The application is a work in progress; in the poster session at CSCL we will report on patterns of use from three informal learning situations.
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Connecting Online Learners at a Distance: The Promise and Challenge of Using Metaphors as Reference Points

• Alyssa Wise , Simon Fraser University
• Poornima Padmanabhan , Simon Fraser University
• Thomas Duffy , Indiana University

This experimental study probed the effectiveness of three kinds of objects (videos, theories, metaphors) as common reference points for conversations between online learners. Outcome measures were learners’ levels of tacit-knowledge (TK) of specific concepts related to their practice (teaching). Learners’ level of detail-focus was examined as a mediating variable. Results showed a positive effect of detail-focus within Metaphor condition for two of three TK indicators examined. Implications for online conversation design are discussed.
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Bridging School and Home: Students' Engagement with Technology-Rich Activities

• Britte Cheng , SRI International
• Serena Villalba , SRI International
• Daniel Schwartz , Stanford University
• Doris Chin , Stanford University
• Patrik Lundh , SRI International
• Aasha Joshi , SRI International

This poster describes ongoing work that examines students use of a computer-based learning environment designed to bridge school and out-of-school learning contexts by incorporating affordances of both formal and informal learning settings. Data presented illustrate sixth grade students’ use of online chat in class and at home and present an initial examination of chat interactions (in both mixed-gender and single-gender peer groups) while their agents are involved in a competitive game.
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Fostering Online Collaborative Learning Using Wikis: A Pilot Study

• Andri Ioannou , University of Connecticut
• Agni Stylianou-Georgiou , University of Nicosia

A classroom that operates as learning community should not be bounded to one weekly face to face meeting. Collaboration and social interaction are enabled to continue online using Web 2.0 technologies. We examined the affordances of wikis to support online collaborative learning within a learning community. The study was conducted with 24 students in an educational psychology graduate level course.
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Using Mobile and Classroom ...

• Zimmerman, Timothy

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Designing with Learners for Game-Based Collaborative Learning: An Account of T-Rex Group

• Beaumie Kim , National Institute of Education
• Alexis Pang , Singapore Ministry of Education
• Misong Kim , National Institute of Education
• Jason Lee , National Institute of Education

This presentation discusses our design approach to incorporating learner voices in developing a game for learning Earth system science, Voyage to the Age of Dinosaurs (VAD). We will particularly focus on the account of a group (T-rex) of 4 participants as to what kind of meanings they are attributing to the artifacts they are creating during the workshops and how these meanings from learners’ voices are contributing to our design.
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VMT-Basilica: An Environment for Rapid Prototyping of Collaborative Learning Environments with Dynamic Support

• Rohit Kumar , Carnegie Mellon University
• Sourish Chaudhuri , Carnegie Mellon University
• Iris Howely , Carnegie Mellon University
• Carolyn Rose , Carnegie Mellon University

Best Technology Design Nominee

In this interactive poster we demonstrate the VMT-Basilica environment that provides facilities for rapid prototyping of computer supported collaborative learning environments that support collaboration in a way that is responsive to what is happening in the collaboration rather than behaving in a “one size fits all fashion”.
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GRASP: The Group Learning Assessment Platform

• Gahgene Gweon , Carnegie Mellon University
• Rohit Kumar , Carnegie Mellon University
• Carolyn Rose , Carnegie Mellon University

We demonstrate a prototype assessment technology designed to enable unobtrusive, real time assessment of group dynamics from speech. As part of that work, we describe a test bed for experimentation with alternative approaches for automatic processing of speech for this purpose. Furthermore, we present a specific successful technique for predicting activity levels and amount of overlapping speech in recordings of actual student group meetings recorded over a semester of a graduate engineering design project course.
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Design of an Online Global Learning Community: International Collaboration of Grades 7-9 Science Students

• Steven Kerlin , The Pennsylvania State University
• Elizabeth Goehring , The Pennsylvania State University
• William Carlsen , The Pennsylvania State University
• James Larsen , GLOBE
• Charles Fisher , The Pennsylvania State University

This paper describes the design decisions made in the construction of an online global learning community for grades 7-9 science students. The collaborative learning tools of class profiles, student-scientist forums, and peer review featured in the From Local to Extreme Environments curriculum are discussed in detail. Initial evaluation of these tools and student reactions to global collaborations in this ongoing study will be accomplished through feedback during the unit and embedded surveys.
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When to Collaborate: Individual and Group Exploration of a Hypertext Environment within an Inquiry Science Classroom

• Garrett Smith , University of Wisconsin - Madison
• Sarah Sullivan , University of Wisconsin - Madison
• Sadhana Puntambekar , University of Wisconsin - Madison

The use of a hypertext environment within an inquiry science curriculum is explored, comparing two conditions of group collaboration: one in which students explore the environment individually prior to a group discussion, and one in which students use the hypertext as a group while discussing the content. Student discourse is analyzed to compare the efficacy of the two conditions and the influence of classroom context on these learning conditions is discussed.
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A new framework for smart classroom research: Co-designing curriculum, research and technology

• Mike Tissenbaum , University of Toronto UofT
• James Slotta , University of Toronto UofT

This new program of research explores how technology can enable smart classrooms where learning transcends traditional class boarders, engages students and teachers with Web 2.0 approaches, and supports a community of learners in developing knowledge. We report on key aspects of our open source smart classroom environment, including an online database of student-generated, tagged, and socially connected learning objects, the integration of handheld learning devices, and supports for visualizing, sorting, and sharing collaboratively generated artifacts.
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Designing On-line Communities to Enhance Teacher Professional Development

• Cheryl Ann Madeira , University of Toronto (OISE)
• James D. Slotta , University of Toronto (OISE)

This poster presents research from a larger three-year study of teacher planning and enacting, where an on-line learning community was established for teacher professional development. This study employed a design research methodology to iteratively develop a computer-supported community. Nine secondary science teachers (N=9) designed, enacted and revised a project-based science lesson while participating in two interventions (reflection and peer exchange). Computer-supported collaborative tools such as wikis and a website were used to foster teacher knowledge, social exchange and collaboration of effective instructional strategies.
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Design Distributed Scaffolding for Modeling a Complex System

• Ying-Shao Hsu , Graduate Institute of Science Education, National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan
• Hsin-Kai Wu , Graduate Institute of Science Education, National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan
• Fu-Kwun Hwang , Department of Physics, National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan
• Li-Fen Lin , Department of Earth Sciences4, National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan

Based on the expert-novice analysis, we developed a distributed scaffolding curriculum for modeling air quality (DSCMAQ) to facilitate high school students’ model-based reasoning in a technology-enhanced learning environment (APoME) which provided the Modeling Air Quality (MAQ) software associated with gradual complex learning tasks. Three studies had conducted to evaluate the effects of DSCMAQ on students’ modeling practices. In these three studies, students worked in a small group to complete DSCMAQ and their modeling abilities were improved after DSCMAQ.
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Supporting Collaborative Learning Across Social Media Applications

• Vlad Posea , Universitatea Politehnica Bucuresti
• Ștefan Trăușan-Matu , Universitatea Politehnica Bucuresti
• Eelco Mossel , University of Utrecht
• Paola Monachesi , University of Utrecht

The lifelong learner of our times may use multiple social media applications to keep in touch with the emerging knowledge and with the relevant people in his domains of interest. However this kind of activity is not supported by the existing applications. This poster proposes a scenario and an application to help users manage their social learning activities in order to find the most relevant and most trusted information produced in the network.
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An Architecture for Intelligent CSCL Argumentation Systems

• Frank Loll , Clausthal University of Technology
• Niels Pinkwart , Clausthal University of Technology
• Oliver Scheuer , German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence
• Bruce McLaren , German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence Carnegie Mellon University

Argumentation is a key research area within CSCL. Yet, while many empirical studies investigating the educational benefits of various forms of collaborative argumentation have been conducted, there has not been much work done towards developing generic and reusable software architectures for collaborative argumentation that have the potential to reduce the development time for argumentation learning systems. This paper proposes a general architecture for intelligently supported collaborative argumentation systems.
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Scaffolding for computer supported writing to learn activities in vocational training

• Monica Gavota , University of Geneva
• Mireille Betrancourt , University of Geneva
• Daniel Schneider , University of Geneva
• Urs Richle , University of Geneva

Dual-T project investigates how ICT can support learning activities involving sharing and reflection about professional experience in order to harmonize school learning with practical experience. In this study we tested the effects of low and high scaffolding on collaborative writing activities on professional procedures. We expected longer, more correct texts to emerge from strongly scaffolded activities than from weakly scaffolded activities.
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Design and Enactment of Collaboration Scripts – an integrative approach with graphical notations and learning platforms

• Andreas Harrer , Catholic University Eichstätt-Ingolstadt
• Dan Kohen-Vacs , Holon Institute of Technology
• Benedikt Roth , University Duisburg-Essen
• Nils Malzahn , University Duisburg-Essen
• Miky Ronen , Holon Institute of Technology
• Ulrich Hoppe , University Duisburg-Essen

This paper presents an approach to integrate methods to define collaborations scripts graphically with existing learning platforms enabling the enactment of the scripts automatically in the learning platform. The practical usage of the approach with the MoCoLADe script design tool and the platform CeLS has shown the potential of the approach and provides insights for a generic solution connecting design tools and learning tools.
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Interplay of Group Dynamics and Science Talk in a Design Based Classroom

• Anushree Bopardikar , University of Wisconsin- Madison
• Dana Gnesdilow , University of Wisconsin- Madison
• Sadhana Puntambekar , University of Wisconsin- Madison

This exploratory study investigated the interplay between science discourse and group dynamics of two groups of 6th graders over time as they learned in a technology-rich, inquiry-based science environment. Analysis showed that the group with problematic dynamics engaged in less science talk and failed to improve over time. Despite dynamics and dialogue differences between groups, both groups primarily focused on procedural aspects instead of science. Future studies of group collaboration over time are discussed.
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Fostering collaborators’ ability to draw inferences from distributed information: a training experiment

• Anne Meier , University of Freiburg
• Hans Spada , University of Freiburg

One important way in which learners can co-construct new knowledge is by drawing collaborative inferences from distributed information. However, groups rarely use members’ complementary knowledge resources to their best potential. In this experiment, student dyads were trained to apply collaborative inferencing strategies. Training improved students’ knowledge co-construction during subsequent, unsupported collaboration. The best performance during transfer was achieved when a specifically designed inference tutoring tool had been employed during training.
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Computer-Assisted Evaluation of CSCL Chat Conversations

• Traian Rebedea , Politehnica University of Bucharest
• Stefan Trausan-Matu , Politehnica University of Bucharest

Although instant messaging is a very popular tool for collaboration and it has been used for a wide variety of CSCL tasks, there are only a few applications for assisting the tutors in evaluating the conversations of the students. Due to the difficulty of this task, chat is seldom used in a formal education context. In order to tackle this problem, several applications were developed which assist the tutors when evaluating chat conversations. This paper presents a comparison of the evaluation results when using these applications on a set of three multi-user chat sessions.
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What is seen on the screen? Exploring representational tools, collaborative interpretation, and disciplined perception in medicine

• Andreas Gegenfurtner , University of Turku

Diagnostic decision-making in medicine involves meaning-making of what can be seen on medical images, such as positron emission tomography (PET) pictures. This meaning-making is seldom an individual activity; rather it involves interactional practices between clinical staff, and between the physician and the specific representational technology. This poster presentation contributes to earlier studies on professional vision and disciplined perception in that it emphasizes the role of feedback, power relations, and ontogeny that shape collaborative interpretation of what is seen on the screen. Taking an analytical perspective founded in ethnomethodology and conversation analysis, this study will closely examine participants of a medical training in PET reading to be held in a Finnish university hospital in spring 2009. Video-recorded data will be analyzed using discourse analytical methods with a focus in understanding the appropriation of professional concepts and analytical skills in relation to feedback, ontogeny, and power. Practical and theoretical implications are outlined.
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From Outcast to Expert: Identities as a Conceptual Lens for Studying Learning through Design Across Spaces

• Deborah Fields , University of California, Los Angeles
• Yasmin Kafai , University of Pennsylvania

In this paper we introduce the analytical lens of identities-in-practice to understand how one youth’s participation in a classroom design project changed as he drew on his identities with design projects developed in other spaces, particularly an after-school technology club.
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WISETales: Sharing Personal Stories as Informal Learning Experience for Women in Science and Engineering

• Zina Sahib , University of Saskatchewan
• Julita Vassileva , University of Saskatchewan

Women are underrepresented in the areas of Science and Engineering, both in academia and industry. This leads to weaker support networks, lower self confidence and lesser access to mentors. We investigate whether a community built with a specific purpose to allow women in science and engineering to share personal stories can support women to reflect and learn from each other’s experience. This paper presents the design of WISETales, a new online community for sharing personal stories. It discusses the design and the potential role of the community as an informal learning tool based on results of an exploratory user study.
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Automating the Analysis of Collaborative Discourse: Identifying Idea Clusters

• Nobuko Fujita , OISE/UT
• Christopher Teplovs , OISE/UT

This poster explores CSCL practices relating to the use of a tool that employs information visualization techniques and large-scale text processing and analysis to complement qualitative analysis of collaborative discourse. Results from latent semantic analysis and qualitative analysis of online discussion transcripts are compared. Findings suggest that such tools that automate analyses of large text-based data sets can offer CSCL researchers a quantitative and unbiased way of identifying a subset of data to study in depth.
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Organized Mischief: Comparing Shared and Private Displays on a Collaborative Learning Task

• Neema Moraveji , Stanford University
• Robb Lindgren , Stanford University
• Roy Pea , Stanford University

We describe a study in which students in two science classes worked on a collaborative learning task using either a shared display or individual displays. The purpose is to inform how display interactions support group collaboration and individual learning when using media technologies. We examined individual learning outcomes as well as behavioral differences between students using the two display types. Preliminary results indicate collaborating with a shared display may result in more effective task organization and subsequently higher conceptual understanding.
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CoPe_it!: Argumentative Collaboration towards Learning

• Manolis Tzagarakis , Research Academic Computer Technology Institute
• George Gkotsis , Research Academic Computer Technology Institute
• Markos Hatzitaskos , Research Academic Computer Technology Institute
• Nikos Karousos , Research Academic Computer Technology Institute
• Nikos Karacapilidis , Research Academic Computer Technology Institute & University of Patras

Best Technology Design Nominee

This paper presents CoPe_it!, an innovative web-based tool that supports collaboration and augments learning among members of diverse communities. The tool fosters the means to manage individual and collective knowledge during a sense-making or a decision-making session. We demonstrate its applicability for Communities of Practice (CoPs) by examining it from both a learning and an argumentative collaboration perspective. Arguing that argumentation is an essential element of the learning process, we comment on related design issues. Through a use case, we discuss how the proposed tool makes it easier for users to follow the evolution of collaboration and comprehend it in its entirety.
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Can teachers discussion lists be a tool for in-service

• Eric Bruillard , ENS Cachan
• Olivier Caviale , ENS Cachan

Following Wenger (1998), discussion lists for inservice teachers are often considered as examples of communities of practice. Such lists have an important role in the professional communication of French teachers and exist for all secondary disciplinary fields. The increase of users for ten years indicates that this exchange medium can be an instrument for professional development. But, many discussion lists are managed by the ministry of education, and one can wonder if such lists are open spaces for all kinds of sharing or kinds of institutional disciplinary showcase. We studied all the messages, during three consecutive years, of a specific discussion list for management secondary teacher (named IGC – 2752 messages) and an extract of a private list for librarian teachers (named CDIDOC – 935 messages) and adopted an ad hoc coding process (with a triple dimension) to get an in-depth view of the nature of exchanges and an understanding of list regulation. The goal of the research is to get evidence of a list as a collaboration tool but results obtained give a contrasted picture of such teacher discussion list, more normative than democratic.
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Analyzing technology-enhanced knowledge practices in an engineering course

• Satu Jalonen , University of Helsinki
• Kari Kosonen , University of Helsinki
• Minna Lakkala , University of Helsinki

The role of educational technology on facilitating advancement of knowledge was investigated in a term project “Multimedia Product” in the Evtek University of Applied Sciences. The purpose of the study was to investigate how the technology under investigation - Knowledge Practices Environment (KPE) - facilitates working collaboratively with shared knowledge objects. It appears that students used KPE mostly for managing and sharing project documentation; and that task was usually delegated to one team member. Students found that organizing items in the content view helped them to get an overview of the tasks, knowledge objects and their interrelationships. On the other hand, the flexibility of the KPE, especially the possibility for all team members to edit and change anything openly might also be a disadvantage; it challenges systematic organization of materials. More research is needed before KPE’s potentials and pitfalls in shared knowledge advancement can be reliably assessed.
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Alternative ways of monitoring collaboration

• ELENI VOYIATZAKI , MRS
• NIKOLAOS AVOURIS , PROFESSOR

Teachers of networked collaborative classrooms, with multiple groups interacting in parallel, need assistance for better understanding and regulating the learning process. They may use tools that collect and process students’ activity data, and generate views of students’ activities. Classroom management tools may be used to observe and control students’ screens, but often fail to exploit interaction data. We present the results of a study where teachers used a classroom management environment to monitor students’ collaborative activities, and a discussion of the alternative views provided by a cscl tool, designed for teacher’s support.
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Impact of Learning Presence on Learner Interaction and Outcome in Web-Based Project Learning

• Myung hee Kang , Ewha Womans University
• Ji yoon Jung
• Mi soon Park
• Hyo jin Park

To identify the impact of presence on interaction and outcomes in Web-based project learning, this study performs multiple regression analyses on learning presence, learner interaction, achievement, and satisfaction. Targeting sixty-three undergraduate students enrolled in a collaborative Web-based project task, the study measures presence and satisfaction through self-report questionnaires, learner interaction through the content analysis method, and achievement through an instructor-developed rubric. The results show that the major predictor of interaction and outcomes is cognitive presence.
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Context and Scripts: Supporting Interactive Work-Integrated Learning

• Mario Aehnelt , Fraunhofer IGD Rostock
• Sybille Hambach , Fraunhofer IGD Rostock
• Petra Müsebeck , Fraunhofer IGD Rostock
• Stefanie Lindstaedt , Know-Center Graz
• Robert de Hoog , University of Twente
• Jose Kooken , University of Twente
• Marleen Musielak , Fraunhofer IGD Rostock

Computational support for work-integrated learning will gain more and more attention. We understand informal self-directed work-integrated learning of knowledge workers as a by-product of their knowledge work activities and propose a conceptual as well as a technical approach for supporting learning from documents and learning in interaction with fellow knowledge workers. The paper focuses on contextualization and scripting as two means to specifically address the latter interaction type.
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Designing Wikis for Collaborative Learning and Knowledge-building in Higher Education

• Swapna Kumar , Boston University

A wiki design that facilitates collaborative learning, knowledge-building, and student reflection was implemented in three graduate courses. Empirical data collected from interactions in the Resources area where students added new resources and commented on peer contributions is analyzed and reported in this poster. The goal is to test the effectiveness of the proposed design for collaborative learning and for the development of a knowledge-building community driven by wiki participants.
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Designing Environments forCollaborative Learning: Facilitating the Adoption of ICT in Small and Medium Sized Enterprises in Costa Rica

• Heilyn Camacho , Aalborg Universty, Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica
• Lone Dirckinck-Holmfeld , Aalborg Universty

The poster describes the design and practical implementation of a collaborative project used to improve the collaborative learning among university, industry and government with aim to facilitate the process of the adoption of information and communication technologies in small and medium sized enterprises in Costa Rica. Learning activities and spaces have been designed to facilitate the interaction of the three sectors and foster critical thinking, collaboration, problem solving, and team work skills in the participants.
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Motivation and Collaborative Behavior: An Exploratory Analysis

• Iris Howley , Carnegie Mellon University
• Sourish Chaudhuri , Carnegie Mellon University
• Rohit Kumar , Carnegie Mellon University
• Carolyn Rose , Carnegie Mellon University

The motivating effects of collaborative learning have long been argued, however a careful analysis of the relationship between the motivation orientation of a student and perceptions of himself, his partners, his collaborative behaviors, and learning in a collaborative context have not been as thoroughly explored. In this paper we present an exploratory analysis of data from a collaborative learning study from the standpoint of motivation type of students and their partners. Overall, what we see is that a student’s own motivation orientation may color their perception of the exchange of help in the collaboration, sometimes obscuring the reality of the help actually exchanged.
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Share and explore discussion forum objects on the Calico website

• Emmanuel GIGUET , GREYC, CNRS – Université de Caen Basse-Normandie – ENSICAEN
• Nadine LUCAS , GREYC, CNRS – Université de Caen Basse-Normandie – ENSICAEN
• François-Marie BLONDEL , STEF, ENS Cachan – INRP, UniverSud
• Eric BRUILLARD , STEF, ENS Cachan – INRP, UniverSud

Best Technology Design Nominee

In this article, we present the Calico website, a shared space where researchers and practitioners in education share and explore discussion forum objects coming from different e-learning platforms. The platform is briefly described. The focus is set on the different kinds of representation provided by the Calico toolkit.
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Advancing Collaborative Creativity in the context of Greek Teachers’ In-Service Training in Environmental Education

• Maria Daskolia , University of Athens
• Niki Lambropoulos , London South Bank University
• Panagiotis Kampylis , University of Jyväskylä

This paper presents the research design of a case study aiming to enhance Greek environmental educators’ competence in collaborative creativity through online training. The study, which is part of an on-going research project, entails the design of an e-learning course, the development and evaluation of a collaborative creativity framework called Hybrid Synergy and of an associated tool to support it, and the identification of specific patterns related to the participants’ engagement with the provided e-learning activities.
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Proposing “collaborative filtering” to foster collaboration in ScratchR Community

• Georgios Fesakis , University of the Aegean
• Angelique Dimitracopoulou , University of the Aegean

The present work focuses the interest of study in a naturally emerged and intense online community, this of ScratchR “programmers by choice” community, that actually practice collaborative learning in an authentic way. Our interest is not to support collaborative learning process, but to foster collaboration opportunities. We propose a personalized recommendation system based on a “collaborative filtering” technique aiming at inciting collaboration and increasing the frequency of Scratch projects remixing, in order to foster collaborative learning. In this paper the proposed collaboration fostering mechanism is outlined with the assistance of a test data set. The significance of the proposal is discussed while the future work is described.
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Context-aware Activity Notification System: Supporting CSCL

• james laffey , university of missouri
• ran-young hong , university of missouri
• krista galyen , university of missouri
• chris amelung , Yale University
• sean goggins , university of missouri

This poster provides an introduction to the Context-Aware Activity Notification System (CANS) and a brief discussion of its design research process. We report the results of three phases of design work. The cumulative results suggest progress toward useful activity visualizations to support forms of social and collaborative learning. The notifications can raise motivation to participate, enhance awareness of group, class, and self-activity, increase participation, and support awareness of instructional and problem-solving opportunities.
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Collaborative Augmented Reality in Schools

• Lyn Pemberton , University of Brighton
• Marcus Winter , University of Brighton

Augmented Reality as an interactive real-time technology combining real and virtual objects in a real 3D space carries enormous educational potential. We describe a project (ARISE: Augmented Reality in School Environments) that aims to realise this potential by developing a collaborative, robust and affordable Augmented Reality learning platform for schools. The learning affordances of Augmented Reality are discussed, and an educational application is described that supports remote collaboration between students in a shared 3D workspace, where students from different countries present, discuss and manipulate virtual objects relating to their local culture. The evaluation of the application is based on a distributed summer school project involving students from two European countries. In addition to more conventional evaluation approaches, special requirements for evaluating remote collaboration in a shared Augmented Reality workspace have been met with a customised approach involving synchronised video observations in both locations with subsequent editing of the material into and a single screen giving a comprehensive overview of the collaboration from both ends. The results of the evaluation study are currently being analysed, but preliminary findings suggest that the Augmented Reality learning platform has been well received by students and teachers, and is well suited for remote collaborative learning.
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The 'Talk Factory' software: scaffolding students' argumentation around an Interactive Whiteboard in primary school science

• Marilena Petrou , The Open University
• Lucinda Kerawalla , The Open University
• Eileen Scanlon , The Open University

Interactions between students can be ineffective when they fail to understand how to talk together and what they should aim to achieve (Dawes, Mercer & Wegerif, 2004). Research suggests that argumentation skills need to be taught explicitly to children and recent work developed students’ collaborative argumentation as a means of improving their understanding of science (Aufschnaiter, Erduran, Osborne & Simon, 2008).Talk Factory is designed to generate graphical representations of the content and processes of students’ collaborative argumentation in real time to assist with these difficulties. We discuss the theoretical underpinning of our work and our participatory design approach.
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PPdesigner: an Editor for Pedagogical Procedures

• Christian Martel , Pentila Corp & Université de Savoie (France)
• Laurence Vignollet , Université de Savoie (France)
• Christine Ferraris , Université de Savoie (France)
• Emmanuelle Villiot-Leclercq , IUFM Grenoble, UJF (France)

The scenarisation of learning activities seems to be a promising way to answer CSCL challenges. The success of the corresponding Learning Design field depends largely on its ability to offer eLearning professionals well-adapted tools. Whereas a number of languages are coming to maturity in this field, the associated authoring tools are still too difficult for instructional designers to manipulate. This paper presents the specification of an authoring tool based on particular scenarios which are here called Pedagogical Procedures.
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Software Design Principles for Video Research in the Learning Sciences and CSCL: Two Studies Use the Perspectivity Framework & Orion™

• Ricki Goldman, New York University
• Chaoyan Dong, New York University
• Reneta Lansiquot, New York City College of Technology

Collaborative analysis of digital data has become an important factor for research in the learning sciences and the computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL) communities. The purpose of this investigation was to deduce design principles to inform future video research software as well as social network development. To uncover these design principles, a meta-analysis was conducted of two dissertational studies that applied the Perspectivity framework and the video analysis tool, Orion™. The first was a qualitatively-informed quantitative study; the second applied balanced mixed methodology—also referred to as quisitive research. The 7 design principles found include: stakeholder involvement; elastic coding; collections as selections and vice versa; applied authenticity; unfolding interpretations; layered critique; and revision tracking.
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eXtremely Simple Scripting (XSS): A Framework to speed up the development of computer-supported collaboration scripts

• Karsten Stegmann , Department of Psychology/LMU München
• Sara Streng , Media Informatics/LMU München
• Max Halbinger , Media Informatics/LMU München
• Jonas Koch , Media Informatics/LMU München
• Frank Fischer , Department of Psychology/LMU München
• Heinrich Hußmann , Media Informatics/LMU München

External computer-supported collaboration scripts may support learners in collaboratively using new technologies. This contribution introduces a framework that offers an object-oriented package of classes and methods that supports eXtremely Simple Scripting (XSS), i.e., the rapid implementation of CSCL scripts for the use with new technologies. We report two examples on how this framework has been used to implement computer-supported collaboration scripts in mobile learning with tablet-PCs and with an interactive table.
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Improving CSCL indicators by sharing multimodal teaching and learning Corpora

• Christophe Reffay , Computer Science Laboratory, University of Franche-Comté
• Marie-Laure Betbeder , Computer Science Laboratory, University of Franche-Comté

We point out the need for CSCL community to reach large scale validation for its results by addressing the lack of sharing of interaction indicators and data. The main goal of the Mulce project is a definition for teaching and learning corpora, a technical format to organize data and a platform for corpus sharing, providing analysis and visualization tools.
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Explicit References in Chat-Based CSCL: Do They Faciliate Global Text Processing? Evidence from Eye Movement Analyses

• Michael Oehl , Leuphana University of Lüneburg
• Hans-Rüdiger Pfister , Leuphana University of Lüneburg

Chat-based Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) often suffers from limitations due to the communication medium. A frequently reported consequence is the lack of discourse coherence and by this a lack of cognitive coherence in the learning process. To overcome these deficiencies, the implementation of explicit references with chat messages caused higher learning results. We analysed eye movements during a chat-based CSCL scenario to gain indications of learners’ use of explicit references for text processing.
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Positioning theory as analytic tool for understanding intersubjective meaning making

• Trena Paulus , University of Tennessee
• Patti Long , University of Tennessee
• Anton Reece , University of Tennessee
• Heather Stewart , University of Tennessee

This paper explores how positioning theory can be used to understand intersubjective meaning-making in CSCL environments. We analyzed asynchronous conversations of three discussion groups in a learning environment designed to teach team process skills. Analysis of the storylines, speech acts and positions taken up by each group provided insights as to how students made meaning in this learning environment.
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iSocial: A 3D VLE for Youth with Autism

• james laffey , university of missouri
• matthew schmidt , university of missouri
• janine stichter , university of missouri
• carla schmidt , university of missouri
• sean goggins , university of missouri

This poster provides an introduction and brief illustration of iSocial, a 3D-Virtual Learning Environment to support social competence development for youth with Autism Spectrum Disorders. We report the results of a field test of a partial implementation of iSocial in the Fall of 2008. Of note are some key lessons learned in how to adapt a successful clinic-based approach to the new medium, as well as lessons in the identification of needed social orthotics and identity representation for supporting social interaction for this special population. Despite numerous challenges in the implementation, the learners and guides were highly engaged in their virtual learning and responded positively to the experience.
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Scaffolding Teacher Adaptation by Making Design Intent Explicit

• Hsien-Ta Lin , National Taiwan University
• Barry Fishman , University of Michigan

Fostering adaptations that are congruent with designers’ original intentions is a constant challenge. In this paper, we explore a technology-facilitated means of scaffolding teacher adaptation of curriculum materials design. We found that teachers are able to inspect multiple aspects of connections within and between lessons and the consequences of their modifications. This study informs the design of environments that aim to support mutual understanding between teachers and curriculum designers with respect to curriculum coherence.
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Scratch-Ed: An Online Community for Scratch Educators

• Karen Brennan , MIT Media Lab

Scratch is a programming environment that enables users to easily construct a wide variety of interactive projects - and share these creations with an online community. A main goal of Scratch is to enable young people to engage in construction-oriented acts of personal expression. From community narratives to role-playing games to mathematical simulations to consciousness-raising presentations, the potential for creative production with Scratch is boundless. However, for those who are primarily concerned with assisting others' Scratch learning, there is a disconnect between what individuals want to do and the resources that are presently available. In response, we have developed Scratch-Ed, an online environment for educators. Using the lens of situated learning, Scratch-Ed has been designed to enable users to organize a community of practice for Scratch around the processes of mutual engagement, joint enterprise, and shared repertoire by sharing stories, exchanging resources, facilitating discussions, and establishing relationships.
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Determining Curricular Coverage of Student Contributions to an Online Discourse Environment Through the Use of Latent Semantic Analysis and Term Cloud

• Christopher Teplovs , OISE/UT
• Nobuko Fujita , OISE/UT

This paper presents a new approach to mapping student contributions to curriculum guidelines through the use of Latent Semantic Analysis and information visualization techniques. A new information visualization technique – differential term clouds – is introduced as a means to make clear changes in semantic fields over time.
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Learning Support through Scaffolding Collaborative Project Work

• Matthias Korn , University of Siegen
• Michael Veith , University of Siegen

A Computer Club House (CCH) can be understood as a community of prosumers in which members are producing and consuming personally meaningful artifacts of each other. In a long term case study, we have analyzed learning practices in a German CCH setting. Observing children and their parents working with construction kits, we found that they had problems in maintaining the flow of their project work over time. Therefore, we develop concepts for a project management tool which support CCH settings to scaffold their growing information space in terms of artifact re-use and expertise development over time. Scaffolding in this regard is understood to support collaborative processes of learning communities.
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Using Speech Recognition Technology in the Classroom: An Experiment in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning

• Anthony Cocciolo, Teachers College, Columbia University

Best Technology Design Nominee

This paper will report on a design and development project that aims to enrich face-to-face classroom contexts using the latest developments in information and communications technology. The Meety project, when used by students in a classroom with laptop computers, captures the verbal utterances of the classroom context and uses it to supply real-time information resources to the students in the classroom. Students have the option of contributing to the information resources and rating the utility of the resources supplied. This project discusses the design and development of the project as well as a simulated trial to test its efficacy.
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Collaboration and abstract representations: towards predictive models based on raw speech and eye-tracking data

• Marc-Antoine Nüssli , Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
• Patrick Jermann , Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
• Mirweis Sangin , Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
• Pierre Dillenbourg , Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

This study aims to explore the possibility of using machine learning techniques to build predictive models of performance in collaborative induction tasks. More specifically, we explored how signal-level data, like eye-gaze data and raw speech may be used to build such models. The results show that such low level features have effectively some potential to predict performance in such tasks. Implications for future applications design are shortly discussed.
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The Effects of Corrected-Errors in Asynchronous Video Based Lessons on Task Efficiency

• Antonios Saravanos , Columbia University
• Seungoh Paek , Columbia University
• Jin Kuwata , Columbia University
• Alexandra Saravanos , Columbia University

This study explores the impact that student exposure to instructor made corrected-errors can have on their pedagogy through the use of asynchronous video-based lessons. We define corrected-errors as segments in the lesson where the instructor makes an error, identifies that an error has been made, and then goes on to correct it. Our study measures the learners' performance on a similar task by looking at the efficiency in which that task is carried out. We hypothesize that the modeling of error detection and correction skills when coupled with the instructor’s explicit meta-cognitive explanation and reflection of errors, will lead to an increase in efficiency.
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Towards embedding assessment in CSCL scripts through selection and assembly of learning and assessment patterns

• Eloy David Villasclaras-Fernández , University of Valladolid
• Davinia Hernández-Leo , Pompeu Fabra University
• Juan Ignacio Asensio-Pérez , University of Valladolid
• Yannis Dimitriadis , University of Valladolid
• Alejandra Martínez-Monés , University of Valladolid

Assessment is one of the key elements of learning scenarios, both in individual and collaborative learning. Thus, embedding assessment in Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) scripts can potentially enhance the enactment of collaborative learning sessions, by explicitly indicating how assessment is to be carried out. However, assessment design has also been recognized as a demanding task for non-expert instructional designers or practitioners. To tackle this problem, the use of learning and assessment patterns has already been reported as a way of supporting script design for non-experts. In this context, the combination of patterns of different nature (learning-oriented and assessment-oriented) can be regarded as an essential task of CSCL script design. This paper discusses how to support this task, focusing on the joint application of patterns, and describes an evaluation of the proposed approach.
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Reducing Dominance in Multiple-Mouse Learning Activities

• Andrea Moed , Yahoo!
• Owen Otto , Google
• Joyojeet Pal , Center for Information & Society
• Udai Singh Pawar , Microsoft Research India
• Matthew Kam , Carnegie Mellon University
• Kentaro Toyama , Microsoft Research India

In resource-constrained classrooms in the developing world, it is common for several students to share each computer. Unfortunately, dominance behavior often naturally emerges in these situations, when one child monopolizes the mouse and keyboard. One way to mitigate this phenomenon is by providing each child with a mouse and a corresponding on-screen cursor so that everyone can interact. Though such multiple-mouse configurations reduce the possibility of total domination by one individual, they do not automatically eliminate dominance behavior completely. We propose the use of a design for small-group learning on shared computers based on enforced turn-taking in a split-screen, multiple-mouse environment. In an evaluation with 104 rural schoolchildren in India, we found that dominance behavior was indeed reduced through these design choices.
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Relay race of practice: integrating technological tools into teaching and learning scenarios

• Tammy Eisenmann
• Baruch B. Schwarz
• Reuma de Groot

Even though integrating technological tools into teaching and learning scenarios is an agreed upon goal it is still far from being fully implemented. This study examines a process of integration of a technological tool, to which a group of teachers participated. The technological tool was developed to enhance dialogism and argumentation, in one Grade 9 class. The question we focused on concerns whether the technological tool used by each teacher for a specific subject matter became integrated in teaching and learning practice across disciplines. Data included 22 discussion maps in five activities by different teachers. The analysis focuses on two dimensions of use of the technological tool: its form and its function. The findings show a process of appropriation of the technological tool could be detected along the five activities. This appropriation could be seen through the increase of arguments and challenges, the growing reference to each other's ideas, and capitalization of previous arguments in follow-up arguments. The results of this study stress the importance of the participation of teachers in the same teacher training and shows that appropriation of norms afforded by a tool are instigated by their participation in two activity systems stimulated by the same technological tool.
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Forum for preservice teachers' development: Lessons learned from five years of research

• Eric Bruillard , ENS Cachan
• Nicole Clouet , Université de Caen
• Roué Dominique , Université de Caen

The CALICO research network, which includes four research laboratories and six teacher training institutes, is devoted to the study of forums in postgraduate education. Among the numerous studies the research network has been performed, the case of preservice school librarian teachers is notable. Since 2002, two training institutes (Caen and Rouen) have shared an e-learning platform which fosters hybrid formation situations based on exchange, mutualisation and collective work. For the past 5 years, significant research has been undertaken in order to better understand the organization of such forums, the activity of participants and groups, and the evolution of discourse and so on, involving very different tools and methods. This text provides a guided tour of these research efforts, explaining their importance and putting the main results obtained into perspective. It is a step towards a better characterisation of the role and nature of the various forums used during training sessions.
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Studying the effect of Interaction Analysis indicators on students’ selfregulation during asynchronous discussion learning activities

• Tharrenos Bratitsis , University of Western Macedonia, Greece
• Angelique Dimitracopoulou , University of the Aegean, Greece

Selfregulation has become an important research subject during the past 20 years, especially in Technology Enhanced Learning approaches, following student-centered strategies. When designing learning activities under this scope, in a social context, the need for building supporting tools for the participants of such activities has been highlighted. We have implemented such tools, by applying Interaction Analysis (IA) techniques, in order to support the participants of asynchronous discussion learning activities. In this paper we study the effects of IA indicators on students’ selfregulation. We present research findings from several implemented case studies, in order to confirm our hypothesis, that such supporting tools indeed facilitate students’ selfregulation, as it was shown both quantitatively and qualitatively, thus enhancing the overall activity, as well as the collaborative process itself.
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A technical framework to support implicit structured collaboration

• Andreas Lingnau , Knowledge Media Research Center
• Martina Bientzle , Kowledge Media Research Center

Verbal communication, particularly the ability to give directions and understand them, is a key not only for learning but also for every day life. Since one main objective of schools for pupils with cognitive disability or learning difficulties is to prepare pupils to manage their every day life on their own, we expect that teaching pupils how to learn and work collaboratively by sharing tasks, give directions to each other and understand them, will support this process and provide them in becoming more independent. In this paper we will present an environment which supports implicit scripted collaborative task solving without increasing cognitive load.
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Creating discussion threads graphs with Anagora

• Emmanuel Giguet , GREYC
• Nadine Lucas , GREYC

We present Anagora, a graphic tool tracing discussion threads along a time axis. Anagora displays overlapping discussion threads over time on a single screen. Its special feature is to calculate the best resolution for a forum to fit on a screen by choosing the most appropriate time scale. Anagora is used to generate views of fora or forum thumbnails. Several discussion fora coming from e-learning platforms illustrate how Anagora is used by tutors and moderators to monitor students’ collaborative work.
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Does social software fit for all? Examining students’ profiles and activities in collaborative learning mediated by social software

• Jari Laru , LET – Learning & Educational Technology Research Unit, University of Oulu, Snellmania, Finland
• Piia Näykki , LET – Learning & Educational Technology Research Unit, University of Oulu, Snellmania, Finland
• Sanna Järvelä , LET – Learning & Educational Technology Research Unit, University of Oulu, Snellmania, Finland

In this study the dependencies between higher education students’ profiles, activities, and learning outcomes in collaborative learning -- as mediated by social software -- were examined. Although the sample size in this study was small (n=22), Bayesian Dependency Modeling method provided statistically viable insight. The results show that learners who were active reflectors in their blogs, but who were also interested in what others achieved, obtained the best results in knowledge tests. Based on the analysis, two distinct learner profiles that reflect differences in the students’ dependencies can be distinguished: monitor and reflector. Furthermore, an indirect dependencies found in the analysis suggests that both reflectors and monitors are also active wiki editors and participants in face-to-face discussions. Further qualitative analyses are needed in order to get an in-depth view of the complex interactions and dependencies within and between the face-to-face and virtual, but also individual and social, planes of collaboration.
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Effects of Awareness Support on Moderating Multiple Parallel E-Discussions

• Astrid Wichmann , University of Duisburg-Essen
• Adam Giemza , University of Duisburg-Essen
• Matthias Krauß , Fraunhofer Gesellschaft IAIS
• Ulrich Hoppe , University of Duisburg-Essen

Moderating multiple e-discussions at a time puts high demands on teachers as moderators. Therefore, to be able to provide effective moderation, teachers should be given adequate awareness support. We evaluated our e-moderation system called “Moderator’s Interface” comparing moderation with and without awareness support. Following a within subject design, our cases were two teachers who were asked to moderate discussions of their students and to choose and prepare a discussion topic compliant with the curriculum. Results indicate that additional awareness support was deliberately used during moderation when available. An analysis of data from the teachers’ answers to 120 questions and tasks indicates that in the awareness condition, both teachers performed better on the tasks as compared to moderating without awareness support. However, it could not be corroborated that teachers gained additional knowledge about the discussion solely from using the awareness support in absence of an external task.
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A Model-Based Coding Scheme to Analyze Students’ Organization

• Patrice Moguel , LIG
• Pierre Tchounikine , LIG
• André Tricot , LTC

In this article we present how we use Bardram’s model of collective work dynamics [1] to elaborate a conceptual tool for coding and analyzing the self-organization of students involved in a mediated (computer-based) pedagogic collective challenge.
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Participation in Knowledge Building “Revisited”: Reflective Discussion and Information Design with Advanced Digital Video Technology

• Carmen Zahn , Knowledge Media Research Center, Tuebingen, Germany
• Karsten Krauskopf , Knowledge Media Research Center, Tuebingen, Germany
• Friedrich W. Hesse , Knowledge Media Research Center, Tuebingen, Germany
• Roy Pea , Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning, Stanford, Ca, USA

Advanced tools in the realm of Web 2.0 applications have pushed forward a new paradigm for using (audio)visual media. This paradigm shift marks a starting point for theoretical reflections and empirical research on the changing nature of participation in modern knowledge building communities involving digital video. We propose a simplified model of collaborative dual-space problem solving, distinguishing online discussion from online design. Directions for future research and the educational implications of this perspective are discussed.
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Enhancing pair learning of pupils with cognitive disabilities: Structural support with help of floor control

• Martina Bientzle , Knowledge Media Research Center
• Katrin Wodzicki , Knowledge Media Research Center
• Andreas Lingnau , Knowledge Media Research Center
• Ulrike Cress , Knowledge Media Research Center

Computer-supported collaborative learning has the potential to be an effective learning method for pupils with cognitive disabilities, but there is just little research in this area. A computer-supported environment offers several possibilities to handle the specific demands of this target group, for example, by structuring the learning situation with Floor Control. Floor Control explicitly structures the activities in the learning environment and implicitly enhances communication.
To examine whether the Floor Control supports the collaboration process on activity level as well as on communication level or not, two versions of a CSCL environment were realized and compared with each other. The results revealed an improved task-related communication and a higher quality of learning results.
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Working collaboratively in small groups supported by KnowCat System: incidence on self-regulated learning processes

• Manoli Pifarré , Universitat de Lleida
• Ruth Cobos , Universidad Autonoma de Madrid

The aim of this research study was to examine the development of higher students’ self-regulated processes after their participation in a specific CSCL system called KnowCat. Twenty-six university students participated in a 6-month learning project. During this period KnowCat learning environment was used to support scaffolding process among students in small group collaborative work. In the research study students’ scaffolding processes in the different small groups were analyzed qualitatively. The results obtained in this study showed small group interaction patterns appeared while their members were working together throughout the instructional process supported by KnowCat. These interaction patters were related with an increasing number of self-regulated processes, specially planning, asking for clarification and monitoring skills.
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Failures and Successes in Collaborative Inquiry:Learning the Physics of Electricity with Agent-Based Models

• Suneeta Pathak , Learning Sciences Laboratory, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
• Beaumie Kim , Learning Sciences Laboratory, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
• Michael Jacobson , Centre for Research on Computer Supported Collaborative Learning and Cognition, The University of Sydney, Australia
• Baohui Zhang , National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

This paper presents a process-oriented case study of successes and failures in collaborative inquiry. The interactions of pairs were recorded and transcribed while they were engaged in learning activities, mediated by agent-based NetLogo electricity models. Transcripts of learner interactions were coded for engagements in science inquiry. The purpose of this paper is to articulate the dynamics of collaborative science inquiry approach resulting from varied scaffolding and consistent scaffolding in learning activities. Our findings indicate that students under a varied scaffolding approach were more deeply engaged in inquiry process and performed better on model-based explanations.
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Learning as a Practical Achievement: An Interactional Perspective

• Alan Zemel , Drexel University
• Murat Cakir , Drexel University
• Nan Zhou , Drexel University
• Gerry Stahl , Drexel University

Despite the definitional difficulties associated with learning and instruction, they evidently occur as social realities for those involved in the practical, day-to-day work of learning and instructing. In this paper we offer an interactional perspective of learning and instruction by relying on the commonsense recognizability of learning to investigate what participants themselves do to achieve and recognize learning’s work.
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Knowledge and learning claims in blog conversations: A discourse analysis in social psychology (DASP) perspective

• Trena Paulus , University of Tennessee
• Kathy Evans , University of Tennessee
• Olivia Halic , University of Tennessee
• Jessica Lester , University of Tennessee
• Jonathan Taylor , University of Tennessee
• Marsha Spence , University of Tennessee

This paper explores how discourse analysis in social psychology (DASP) can provide CSCL researchers with insights regarding how students perform knowing and learning. We investigated what counted as knowledge and learning as students in a large undergraduate lecture course shared their understandings of dietary supplements through blog conversations.
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Roles of Initiators and Interaction Patterns: Exploring an Informal Online Community at the Interpersonal Plane

• Gyeong Mi Heo , McGill University Alain Breuleux , McGill University

We present a study exploring learning in an informal online community (OC) for foodservice professionals according to three planes (i.e., community, interpersonal, and individual planes). Among these planes, this paper focuses on the interpersonal plane (i.e., how do participants interact with each other and what do they share through their interactions?) and highlight the importance of initiators’ roles and the subsequent interaction patterns. To investigate interaction and learning processes, we collected 227 discussion threads posted in the year 2006, analyzed them through a multi-layered analysis approach, and graphically presented the results to show the complex components of interactions at a glance. Finally, we discuss the characteristics of interaction and learning processes in this OC and the relationship between initiators roles and interaction patterns.
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Collaborative Scientific Conceptual Change: A Framework for Analyzing Science Learning

• Lei Liu , University of Pennsylvania
• Cindy Hmelo-Silver , Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey

One problem in science education is that students neither construct in-depth conceptual understanding nor are they able to apply scientific thinking processes. A myriad of studies on conceptual change have investigated the nature and process of conceptual change, pedagogical strategies to foster conceptual change and improve higher-level thinking. We propose a new framework - the collaborative scientific conceptual change model – to stresses the importance of high quality collaborative discourse and scientific epistemic practices in the process of conceptual change. To investigate how group interactions influence individual students’ learning gains, multilevel analysis was used to analyze the hierarchically nested data and qualitative analyses were presented to compare high and low-achievement groups’ discourse and their application of epistemic practices. The results found that predicting and coordinating theory and evidence were key practices that predicted students’ individual posttest performance and the group interactions were related to the group understanding.
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Beyond Explicit Feedback: New Directions in Adaptive Collaborative Learning Support

• Erin Walker , Carnegie Mellon University (CMU)
• Nikol Rummel , University of Freiburg
• Kenneth Koedinger , Carnegie Mellon University (CMU)

Adaptive collaborative learning support (ACLS) may be better than fixed forms of support at increasing learning from collaboration. While much existing adaptive assistance has focused on providing explicit feedback directly to the relevant student, we propose a two-dimensional design space which explores alternative methods of adaptive assistance that are implicit, indirect, or both. We investigated the viability of these ideas using data collected in a classroom evaluation of an ACLS system for peer tutoring which incorporated the design ideas in a manner that provided cognitive support to peer tutors. In this paper, we discuss how students interacted with the different forms of feedback, and propose a second iteration of the assistance that involves collaborative support in addition to domain support.
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When Is Collaborating With Friends A Good Idea? Insights From Design Education

• Heidy Maldonado , Stanford University
• Scott Klemmer , Stanford University
• Roy Pea , Stanford University

Prior research is split on the relationship between prior friendship and performance. Based on our review of the literature, we highlight areas where further research is needed to achieve greater practical applicability of the results. We then present our study measures and preliminary analysis of data collected from a design studio university course. Our quantitative and qualitative probes suggest a link between teammates’ prior friendship and lower performance outcomes. We also identify four group processes that may mediate the relationship between friendship and performance.
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Adaptation Patterns in Systems for Scripted Collaboration

• Anastasios Karakostas , Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
• Stavros Demetriadis , Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

This work presents a prototype method (DeACS) for identifying useful adaptation patterns to be embedded in systems for adaptive collaboration scripting. Collaboration scripts are didactic scenarios that guide and support the collaborative learning activity while adaptive collaboration scripting is the idea that computer-supported collaboration scripts can be adapted during run time, to provide learning experiences tailored to individual and group characteristics. An adaptation pattern is described as a well-defined adaptation process that can be initiated by the system when specific conditions are identified during script implementation. In order to model the proposed method twelve postgraduate students were engaged in a pyramid-type collaboration script and the analysis of the learning experience provided the basis for identifying a number of possible adaptation patterns. The paper discusses also next steps for advancing the design and evaluation of adaptation patterns in systems for scripted collaboration.
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Democratizing Design: New Challenges and Opportunities for Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning

• Gerhard Fischer , University of Colorado

The fundamental challenge for the next generation of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) systems is to contribute to the invention, fostering and support of cultures of participation in which humans can express themselves and engage in personally meaningful activities. New models for knowledge creation, accumulation, and sharing are needed that allow, encourage, and support all participants to be active contributors in personally meaningful activities.
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Sustainable Script and Scaffold Development for Collaboration on Varying Web Content: The S-COL Technological Approach

• Christof Wecker , University of Munich
• Karsten Stegmann , University of Munich
• Florian Bernstein , Technical University of Munich
• Michael J. Huber , Technical University of Munich
• Georg Kalus , Technical University of Munich
• Sabine Rathmayer , Technical University of Munich
• Ingo Kollar , University of Munich
• Frank Fischer , University of Munich

We present a single solution for the following two problems: (1) to provide just-in-time support for collaborative learning tasks on top of arbitrary web pages (e. g. in order to foster online search competence) and (2) to transfer collaboration scripts implemented on a particular platform to other platforms. S-COL solves both by using fixed browser-side scripts and scaffolds and triggering them by recognizing types of functionally equivalent web pages, and combines this with collaborative web-browsing.
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Students Engaged in Collaborative Modeling

• Peter Reimann , University of Sydney
• Anindito Aditomo , University of Sydney
• Kate Thompson , University of Sydney

The chat communication between students engaged in a collaborative modeling task, using a system dynamics modeling approach, was analysed. The analysis revealed a pattern to how students begin new problems in a chat and the analysis of the objects of learning identified issues with both communication between students and the design of one of the tasks. We describe a number of the emerging interactional practices and draw conclusions regarding the instructional use of modeling problems.
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Analyzing CSCL-mediated Science Argumentation: How Different Methods Matter

• Jennifer Yeo , National Institute of Education
• Yew-Jin Lee , National Institute of Education
• Aik-Ling Tan , National Institute of Education
• Seng-Chee Tan , National Institute of Education
• Shawn Lum , National Institute of Education

Research on argumentation has increased our understanding of knowledge construction, group learning, and scaffolding structures in CSCL although analyses of argumentation pose many difficulties. This could be due to the many theoretical positions that can be taken when approaching discourse data. In this paper, we use three popular analytic methods (interactional, content-specific, and linguistic) to compare the same fragment of scientific argumentation by Grade 4 children in Singapore. We show the complementary emphases and strengths of each disciplinary position as well as their weaknesses. The results imply that analytic methods arising from different disciplinary positions can potentially broaden our overall understanding of using argumentation in CSCL.
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Online and face-to-face discussions in the classroom: A study on the experiences of 'active' and 'silent' students

• Christa S. C. Asterhan , Hebrew University of Jerusalem
• Tammy Eisenmann , Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Even though the advantages of online discussions over face-to-face discussion formats has been extensively reported and investigated, the blending of online discussion tools in co-located classroom settings has been considered with far less intensity. In this paper, we report on secondary school students’ experiences and preferences concerning two different discussion formats in co-located classroom settings, namely face-to-face (F2F) and synchronous, computer-mediated communication (CMC). In addition, we also differentiate between students that are known to be active participants in F2F classroom discussions and those who usually remain silent. The findings highlight several advantages of CMC over F2F discussions in co-located settings and show that different students ('active' and 'silent') experience F2F and computer-mediated communication differently.
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Collaboration and Knowledge Integration

• Elizabeth Gerard , University of California Berkeley
• Erika Tate , University of California Berkeley
• Jennifer Chiu , University of California Berkeley
• Stephanie Corliss , University of California Berkeley
• Marcia C. Linn , University of California Berkeley

We draw on three examples from the Technology Enhanced Learning in Science (TELS) project to show how collaborative activities designed following knowledge integration patterns contribute to science learning. By knowledge integration we refer to learners sorting out their many, often contradictory, ideas to develop coherent understanding. Research on instruction suggests four interrelated processes that jointly lead to integrated understanding: eliciting current ideas, adding new ideas, evaluating ideas, and sorting out ideas. These processes characterize design patterns that promote knowledge integration. We describe how knowledge integration patterns informed the design of collaborative activities for Chemical Reactions and report on the value of heterogeneity in small groups. We describe how teachers learned from each other while refining an on-line teacher’s guide for Asthma. We describe how teachers engaged in collaborative customization of the Plate Tectonics unit and show that the revised unit resulted in improved student learning.
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Self-regulation in ACT: A case study in peer-assessment activities

• Agoritsa Gogoulou , Department of Informatics & Telecommunications, University of Athens
• Evangelia Gouli , Department of Informatics & Telecommunications, University of Athens
• Christos Tsakostas , Department of Informatics & Telecommunications, University of Athens
• Maria Grigoriadou , Department of Informatics & Telecommunications, University of Athens

Having as an objective to support students in collaborating/communicating fruitfully with respect to the underlying collaborative learning setting, we developed ACT, a synchronous communication tool which supports mechanisms for students’ self-regulation as well as for the adaptation and personalization of the communication. The self-regulation mechanism enables the diagnosis and the evaluation of students’ collaborative behavior both at the cognitive and social level and provides feedback at awareness, metacognitive and guiding level. The use of ACT in the context of a peer-assessment activity showed that the tool can help students in self-regulation and improve their collaboration behavior.
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Testing and Validating Frames for Online Organizations

• Lisa Scherff , University of Alabama
• Josie Prado , University of Alabama
• Nancy Robb Singer , University of Missouri--St. Louis

In this paper we suggest that online environments can function as alternate “organizations” for pre-service and beginning teachers who may find themselves struggling in schools. Building on prior work on framing and reframing in organizations and schools, the authors present a new frame of analysis specifically geared for web-based learning/support communities. Data consist of transcripts from three forms of online discourse—an e-mail listserv, an electronic discussion board, and a course-related wiki—from three groups of pre-service secondary teachers (grades 6-12) located in three U.S. states. The development and testing of the new frame and its potential use is relevant for teachers, teacher educators, and school administrators.
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Towards Design-Based Knowledge-Building Practices in Teaching

• Huang-Yao Hong , Department of Education, National Chengchi University, Taiwan
• Jianwei Zhang , University at Albany, State University of New York, USA
• Chewlee Teo , OISE, University of Toronto, Canada
• Marlene Scardamalia , OISE, University of Toronto, Canada

This paper explores knowledge building in a community identified by Bielaczyc and Collins (2006) as a hotbed community—a community in which knowledge creation has taken on a life of its own. The practices of six elementary schoolteachers are analyzed to inform the development of teachers’ knowledge-building practices and to better understand how teachers develop and sustain innovative knowledge-building practices.
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A context for collaboration: Institutions and the infrastructure for learning

• Christopher Jones , Open University

This paper discusses the role of institutional issues in the deployment of infrastructures for learning and the ways in which they can impact on the range of choices and opportunities for collaboration in university education. The paper is based on interviews with 12 key informants selected from relevant staff categories during the deployment of a new institutional infrastructure in a large UK based distance learning university. It is supplemented by participant observation by the author who was part of a group of advisors tasked with working with the project team developing and deploying the new infrastructure. The paper investigates the development and deployment of the infrastructure as a meso level phenomena and relates this feature to the discussion of emergence and supervenience as features of social interactions in education.
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Collaboration and the Net generation: The changing characteristics of first year university students

• Christopher Jones , Open University
• Ruslan Ramanau , Open University

This paper reports on the first phase of research that investigates the Net generation entering university. The paper focuses on claims about the Net generation’s relationship to collaboration and cooperation and the ways that this relationship is associated with technological rather than social processes. Based on a survey of first year students in five universities across a range of subjects and disciplinary areas, the paper concludes that we should be cautious about the claims that have been made about Net generation learners. It suggests that broad brush approaches to generational changes obscure the subtle but important differences between students. It also suggests that claims that there has been a step change in attitudes takes attention away from the kinds of choices that might be necessary in relation to variations that are indeed taking place amongst new cohorts of students.
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The Process of Digital Formalization in Sociotechnical Learning Communities - Needed or Overloaded?

• Isa Jahnke , Dortmund University of Technology

The Web 2.0 is often characterized by an informal participation, which means a free cooperation of as many as possible without any restraints from organizations, processes, or technical platforms. In contrast to public communities, an official organization like a company consists of rather formal structures which define what a member should do and how to fulfill a task by assigning a role. If such a formal organization supports a community, does the balance between informal and formal structures will change? This short paper presents the results of a field study about a socio-technical community called ‘InPUD’ which is part of a faculty. The main conclusion is that a specific degree of digital formalization in online groups is needed for successful online structures and sustainability. By using new media like Web 2.0, the balance between informal and formal structures in institutions will be changed.
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A Practice Scaffolding Interactive Platform

• Jeppe Bundsgaard , School of Education, Aarhus University, Denmark

A Practice Scaffolding Interactive Platform (PracSIP) is a social learning platform which supports students in collaborative project based learning by simulating a professional practice. A PracSIP puts the core tools of the simulated practice at the students' disposal, it organizes collaboration, structures the students' activity, and interactively supports subject learning. A PracSIP facilitates students' development of complex competencies, and at the same time it supports the students' development of skills defined in the curriculum. The paper introduces the concept, presents the theoretical foundations, and gives an example of a PracSIP.
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Conceptual and procedural knowledge construction in computer supported collaborative learning

• Bernhard Ertl , Universität der Bundeswehr München

This paper focuses on learners’ knowledge construction in computer supported collaborative learning. It investigates how far individual knowledge (prior knowledge), collaborative knowledge (the quality of collaborative knowledge construction), and instructional support may contribute to the outcomes of learners’ knowledge construction. It analyzes predictors for learners’ learning outcomes with respect to procedural knowledge (successful application of rules for case-solving) and conceptual knowledge (cued answer of theory concepts) under consideration of learners’ knowledge about theory definitions. To find answers to this issue, results of two studies are presented. They show that predicting factors for learners’ construction of conceptual knowledge lie mainly in the individual while procedural knowledge benefits of collaborative knowledge construction.
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How Group Gender influences Individual Knowledge Elaboration in CSCL

• Ning Ding , Groningen University, GION (Education Research Institute)

Best Paper Nominee

The aim of the study is to explore the gender difference in learning achievement and knowledge elaboration process in CSCL. A sample of ninety-six secondary school students, aged 16, participated in the two-week experiment. Students were randomly paired to solve six problems about Newtonian mechanics. Their pre- and post-test performances and online interactions were analyzed. We found that female students’ learning performance and knowledge elaboration process were sensitive to their partner gender, but that’s not the case for male students. Besides, due to a divergent knowledge elaboration process, mixed-gender dyads run the risk of disadvantaging female students in CSCL.
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Three years of teaching resource sharing by primary school teachers trainees on a CSCW platform

• Jean SIMON , IUFM de La Réunion Calico, Grrapeli

In this paper, we propose a unit of analysis to study traces in CSCW, the higher level shared folder (hlsf), which we define. We use it here to analyze how teaching resource pooling and sharing has been operated by the teacher trainees within the IUFM de La Réunion for three years. We verify that this sharing was effective, we see how it was structured and we study its evolution during those three years.
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Recognizing creative thinking in graphical e-discussions using artificial intelligence graph-matching techniques

• Rupert Wegerif , University of Exeter
• Bruce McLaren , Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz
• Marian Chamrada , University of Exeter
• Oliver Scheuer , Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz
• Nasser Mansour , University of Exeter
• Jan Mikšátko , Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz

Many approaches to analyzing online argumentation focus on explicit reasoning and overlook the creative emergence of new ideas. The value of a dialogic analytic framework including creative emergence was tested through applying it to the coding and analysis of undergraduate synchronous e-discussions using a graphical interface within the EU funded project ARGUNAUT. Qualitative analysis found that critical reasoning functioned to ‘deepen’ the graph through unpacking assumptions whilst creative emergence of new perspectives produced ‘widening’ moves. This distinction between deepening and widening was successfully used as the basis for an artificial intelligence (AI) graph-matching algorithm. Given examples of deepening and widening from real e-discussions, the AI algorithm was able to successfully find other occurrences of such moves within new e-discussions. This supports our claim to distinguish between these two aspects of shared thinking and has the potential to provide awareness indicators as a support for e-moderation.
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Social Networking and Education: Emerging Research within CSCL

• Christine Greenhow, University of Minnesota

In this paper I introduce a youth-initiated practice: online social networking that is transforming our society in important ways and has vast implications for learning research and education. I introduce the social and technical features that characterize social networking systems and outline results from emerging research that suggests the social and intellectual practices in which participants naturally engage and how these relate to the competencies increasingly valued in formal education. Next, I discuss one research projects which I am currently pursuing that build on early work and suggest how educational programs might employ such practices to advantage. Finally, I discuss what I see as the educative value of this technology in certain contexts and suggest a course for future research and development. My overall goals are to inform other researchers interested in pursuing similar projects and to stimulate interdisciplinary conversation about where such agendas fit within and advance the aims of CSCL.
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Notational Effects on Use of Collaboratively Constructed Representations During Individual Essay Writing

• Ravi Vatrapu , Copenhagen Business School
• Dan Suthers , University of Hawaii
• Richard Medina , University of Hawaii

Prior analyses of collaboration through different notational systems (e.g., threaded discussions and evidence maps) have documented differential influences of notations on collaborative processes as well as ways in which groups appropriate these notations for their work. These prior analyses have focused on collaborative interaction, yet for instrumental purposes in educational practice, the individual is the unit of analysis. Hence it is relevant to ask how individuals use the products of collaborative interaction as documented in a given notational system. This paper reports on an analysis of data from a prior study to uncover how participants went about writing individual essays, drawing on the products of interactionally prior joint problem solving. The analysis first documented parameters of the human-computer interactions through which individual participants accessed and appropriated the record of prior work. Parameters included focus shifts, use of copy/paste, and access to records of data and hypotheses considered. The analysis then compared three experimental conditions and two post-hoc groups on the selected parameters. Profiles plots reveal consistent differences between the use of the notational systems that are indicative of differences in engagement with the materials.
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Physical space and division of labor around a tabletop tangible simulation

• Patrick Jermann , Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
• Guillaume Zufferey , Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
• Bertrand Schneider , Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
• Aurélien Lucci , Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
• Simon Lépine , Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
• Pierre Dillenbourg , Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

We describe a tangible tabletop simulation, the Tinker Table, which is designed to train logistics apprentices in Switzerland. Vocational training is organized following a dual model which combines practice on the workplace and theory in the professional school. Two groups of learners were observed during an activity which consists of optimizing the layout of a warehouse. We propose a descriptive account of how the spatial position of resources and learners influences the type of manipulations which are performed by each of them.
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Over-computing CSCL Macro scripts?

• Michele Notari , School of Teacher Education University of Applied Sciences PHBern
• Beat Döbeli Honegger , University of Teacher Education Central Switzerland

In this paper we show how teachers can improve collaborative learning by designing and implementing macro scripts and by regulating script sessions using enhanced wikis, called WikiPlus. To achieve optimal collaborative learning it is important to have a well designed script (preparation phase). It is also very important to being able to regulate learners’ activities, because some activities can not be predicted in complex pedagogical scenarios as collaborative learning (regulation phase). WikiPlus helps enhancing the collaboration process by enabling the teacher to adapt the script whenever non predicted learner’s activities happen. A prototype has been implemented, the impact of different regulation mechanisms on collaboration is discussed and wishes for macro script authoring tools of the future are formulated.
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Effects of a context awareness tool on students’ cognition of their team-mates learning time in a distance learning project activity

• Margarida ROMERO , Université de Toulouse, CLLE-LTC (UMR 5263)
• André TRICOT , Université de Toulouse, CLLE-LTC (UMR 5263)
• Claudette MARINÉ , Université de Toulouse, CLLE-LTC (UMR 5263)

Aiming to understand and enhance metacognition in Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL), we considered time management as one of students’ major challenges in CSCL. In collaborative activities, students need to know and regulate their individual and collective time being aware about their own and their team-mates expected availabilities. Aiming to understand and enhance time awareness in distance learning context we introduced a methodology for the assessment of Group Time Awareness, based on the comparison of subjective and inter-subjective students’ learning time perceptions. Assuming that enhancing awareness will help the collaborative learning process (McCarthy & Garavan, 2008) we hypothesize that group awareness could be improved by enhancing the reflexive properties of the Computer Learning Environment. For this purpose, we conducted an experimental study introducing a context-awareness tool in order to evaluate its impact on group time awareness scores.
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Sustaining Collaborative Knowledge Construction in Graduate-Level Education: Examining Design Issues

• Hedieh Najafi , Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
• James Slotta , Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

This paper presents a design-based study of a graduate level course that uses CSCL methods to establish a unique pedagogical form of knowledge community. This interdisciplinary seminar is divided into a set of knowledge media themes, with a different group of students leading each theme. With each new offering of the course, students inherit a course wiki that aggregates the content and pedagogical knowledge from prior offerings. For each theme, the student leaders work closely with the instructor to design pedagogical approaches that engage the class in specific knowledge practices that are pertinent to the theme. This study considers the theme of “immersive environments”, and analyzes instructor and student actions through three iterations of the course in terms of pedagogical designs and use of technologies.
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CSCL for teacher professionnal development

• Bruno Poellhuber , Université de Montréal
• Catherine Allen , Université de Montréal
• Martine Chomienne , Cégep@distance

Within the last fifteen years, many colleges of the province of Quebec in Canada have been faced with low admission rates in some less popular technical programs. The increased financial burden for these institutions and the enhanced task burden for teachers working with small groups of students threaten the quality of teaching and learning. In order to cope with this situation, computer-mediated collaboration (telecollaboration) was used to provide teachers with the opportunity to work with colleagues from other colleges who teach similar courses. In this short paper, the impacts of telecollaboration on resources diversity and teacher professional development are examined. After four semesters of experimentation, questionnaires and interviews suggest that teachers learned from their colleagues as they shared ideas and acquired pedagogical and technopedagogical knowledge and skills.
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Designing the Game-based Environment to Facilitate Learners’ Interaction in Performance-based Learning by Virtual Pets

• Chang-Yen Liao , Graduate Institute of Network Learning Technology, National Central University
• Zhi-Hong Chen , Graduate Institute of Network Learning Technology, National Central University
• Tak-Wai Chan , Graduate Institute of Network Learning Technology, National Central University

Digital game-based learning attracts increasingly attention due to its positive influences on learning. Different games promote different aspects of learning. This paper attempts to propose a performance-based learning (PeBL) approach to create stage contexts in game-based learning environments. A My-Pet-and-Our-Stage system is developed according to this PeBL approach, and contains My-Pet and Our-Stage, which contains pet-nurturing mode and task learning mode, pet-performance mode and pet-performance mode, respectively. The learners in order to gain identity-making in front-stage, and therefore the learners need to be effort-making in back-stage. Since these the animal companions are driven by learner models.
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Integrating CMC and Verbal Discussions in Students’ Collaborative Learning in F2F Classroom

• Wenli Chen, National Institute of Education Singapore
• Chee-Kit Looi, National Institute of Education Singapore
• Sini Tan, National Institute of Education Singapore

This paper analyses the role of different communication modes in students’ collaborative learning in a Primary Grade 5 blended learning environment in Singapore. Small groups of students interacted face-to-face over a CMC technology called Group Scribbles (GS) to jointly complete a learning task. We analyzed the construction and evolution of the interactions through analyzing the artifacts that are produced by a group of students - in the verbal talk, gestures, and sketches drawn and text inscribed in GS. F2F and GS interactions intertwined to support collaborative learning. The findings from this study could inform the design of integrating and reinforcing the strengths of both communication modes when introducing CSCL in a F2F classroom.
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Making classrooms socio-technical environments for supporting collaborative learning: the role of personal devices and boundary objects

• Chen-Chung Liu, National Central University
• Chen-Wei Chung, National Central University
• Shu-Yuan Tao, Chungyu Institute of Technology

The emergence of low-price computers has made possible numerous new ways of classroom learning. The personal devices that are applied in a manner without interoperation with appropriate peripherals may interfere with face-to-face collaboration since the personal devices were design for personal usages. To improve the collaboration that takes place in small face-to-face groups in repeated episodes, we seek to strengthen relationships by encouraging non-verbal contact, which is known to be a key component to increasing intimacy in personal relationships. Through gathering the small group learning interactions in a collaborative learning scenario, this study proposed that classroom environments require, in addition to personal devices, special design of boundary objects to sustain and support social learning activities. An experimental classroom was developed with LCD displays and shared-display groupware. Analysis of student learning activity found that students working with only personal devices tended to learn together in a disjoint interaction pattern. Contrarily, in the environment with shared-displays as boundary objects students demonstrated a joint and coherent interaction pattern since they took more notice of the shared group work.
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Supporting Student Engagement in Simulation Development

• Katerina Glezou , National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece
• Maria Grigoriadou , National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece

This paper presents a small-scale study investigating the use of the MicroWorlds Pro multimedia programming environment as an authoring tool for constructing models, simulations and multimedia applications with students of Senior High School. We implemented two alternate instructional strategies: simulation development from scratch and use of a preconstructed microworld, and observed how the students collaborate and interact with the programming environment. The findings highlight the overall process and the differences in the students’ levels of engagement and performance, indicating some special features of the programming environment that contribute to or cause difficulty in the creation of an effective learning environment.
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The Needlework in evaluating a CSCL system: The Evaluand oriented Responsive Evaluation Model

• Iván Manuel Jorrín-Abellán , University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Robert E. Stake , University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Alejandra Martínez-Monés , University of Valladolid

This article presents the Evaluand-oriented Responsive Evaluation Model (EREM), a comprehensive evaluation model to be used in the evaluation of a CSCL system. The model relies on a responsive evaluation approach to provide potential evaluators with a practical tool to evaluate multiple criteria and episodes
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Grassroots open, online, calculus help forums

• Carla van de Sande , Arizona State University

The emergence of free, open, online, help forums has transformed tutoring from a private and individual activity into a public and collective endeavor. These forums support asynchronous exchanges between individuals from around the world. Students visit these forums seeking help on specific queries from coursework and receive help from anonymous others. In contrast to help forums designed and supervised by educational researchers, these forums have a grassroots origin. This paper investigates one such calculus help forum for evidence that forum tutors are scaffolding students to contribute to the successful solution of the exercise they posted. An analysis of 200 exchanges on limit and related rates revealed the presence of effective guided problem solving (marked by leading questions and hints), albeit to a limited extent. This work points to the need for discovering ways to augment constructive interactions in popular help forums that have become part of the student learning experience.
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Distributed Weather Net: Wireless Sensor Network Supported Inquiry-Based Learning

• Ben Chang , National Chiayi University
• Hsue-Yie Wang , National Central University
• Chin-Shueh Chen , Taipei Municipal Yongle Primary School
• Jen-Kai Liang , National Central University

In 2004, a city-wide weather wireless sensor network, Taipei Weather Inquiry-Based Learning Network, composed of sixty school-based weather sensor nodes and a centralized weather archive server was established to facilitate students having weather science inquiry-based learning. The network covers the whole Taipei City, collects the city’s weather status, and opens the weather data to the general public. A series of annual weather inquiry-based learning tournaments was held since 2006 to engage the students to use the network’s resource. Until now, there have been 171 registered teams which include 447 grade 4-9 students and 220 teachers involved in it. The study of the tournaments data indicated that the usability of the network was satisfied.
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Constructing the Face-to-Face Collaborative Game-based Interacted Environment to Portable Devices in English Vocabulary Acquisition

• Hui-Chun Hung , Institute of Information Systems and Applications, National TsingHua University, Taiwan
• Shelley Shwu-Ching Young , Institute of Information Systems and Applications, National TsingHua University, Taiwan
• Chiu-Pin Lin , Graduate School of e-Learning Technology, National Hsinchu University of Education, Taiwan

This study is aimed to develop a face-to-face collaborative English vocabulary acquisition game system on portable devices, called Wireless Crossword Fan-Tan Game (WiCFG). One class of 32 primary school students in Taiwan participated in this study. Students’ learning outcome, motivation, and attitude were collected and analyzed. In their small group interaction, we analyzed and generalized three interaction modes: "Face-to-face interaction", "Device-media interaction" and "Human-device interaction". Significantly, a “face-to-face portable-device-mediated interaction module” was proposed. The preliminary research findings indicate that adopting the WiCFG could improve the learning outcome of lower-achievement learners. Using the WiCFG had positive enhancements of learning motivation and engagement. In the group observation, using the WiCFG improved learners more interdependent in group collaborative learning and was generally well-received by the English teacher and the students.
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Tatiana: an environment to support the CSCL analysis process

• Gregory Dyke , Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Saint-Etienne
• Kristine Lund , ICAR CNRS University of Lyon
• Jean-Jacques Girardot , Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Saint-Etienne

Best Student Paper Nominee

The analysis of multimodal computer-mediated human interaction data is difficult: the diverse nature of this data and its sheer quantity is challenging enough, but a further obstacle is introduced by the complex nature of these interactions. In this paper, we describe the kinds of activities performed by researchers wishing to analyze this data. We present a model for analysis based on these activities. We then introduce Tatiana (Trace Analysis Tool for Interaction Analysts) as an environment based on this model and designed to assist researchers in managing, synchronizing, visualizing and analyzing their data by iteratively creating artifacts which further their understanding or exhibit their current understanding of their data. We show how Tatiana can be used to perform analyses and its potential for sharing corpora and analyses within the research community.
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V.S.P.O.W.: An Innovative Collaborative Writing Approach to Improve Chinese as L2 Pupils' Linguistic Skills

• Lung-Hsiang Wong , National Institute of Education, Singapore
• Chee-Kuen Chin , Singapore Centre for Chinese Language
• Wenli Chen , National Institute of Education, Singapore
• Ping Gao , National Institute of Education, Singapore

This paper outlines an eclectic approach to assist juvenile Chinese as second language (L2) pupils in Singapore in developing linguistic-related micro-skills for writing. The recursive, bottom-up writing process requires the pupils to collaboratively carry out “word/phrase pooling”, “sentence making”, “paragraph writing” and “outlining” on wiki, and eventually composing their essays individually. The intention is to fill up the gap between the current-traditional product-oriented approach and the more cognitively demanding process-oriented approach, that is, juvenile L2 learners' limited linguistic and cognitive skills that would hinder them from writing proper essays, not to mention carrying out process writing. The results of our pilot study show that the target pupils' micro-skills for writing were improved significantly due to emergent peer coaching. There is also an implication that through such peer coaching activities, the perceived challenge of pupils' individual differences in linguistic proficiency could be turned into an advantage for motivating pupils' collaboration in learning.
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Inscriptions Becoming Representations

• Richard Medina , University of Hawaii
• Daniel Suthers , University of Hawaii
• Ravi Vatrapu , Copenhagen Business School

Best Paper Nominee - Best Student Paper Nominee

This paper analyzes the interaction of three students working on mathematics problems over several days in a virtual math team. Our analysis traces out how successful collaboration in a later session was contingent upon the work of prior sessions, and shows how representational practices are important aspects of these participants’ mathematical problem solving. We trace the formation, transformation and refinement of one problem-solving practice—problem decomposition—and three representational practices—inscribe first solve second, modulate perspective and visualize decomposition. The analysis shows how inscriptions become representations for the group through a historical trajectory of negotiation. This result is of theoretical interest because it shows how the practices underlying group cognition are contingent upon not only the immediate situation but also the chronologically prior resources and associated practices.
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Is Representational Guidance Culturally Relative?

• Ravi Vatrapu , Copenhagen Business School
• Daniel Suthers , University of Hawaii

The basic hypothesis of this research project is that since the perception and appropriation of affordances vary across cultural dimensions, representational guidance may be culturally relative. An experimental study was conducted to evaluate this hypothesis. The study design consisted of three independent groups of dyads from similar or different cultures (American-American, American-Chinese, and Chinese-Chinese) doing collaborative problem-solving in a knowledge-mapping learning environment. Participants interacted through an asynchronous computer interface providing multiple tools for interaction (diagrammatic workspace, embedded notes, threaded discussion). Based on empirical findings documenting cross-cultural variations in communication and cognition, several research hypotheses were advanced. Statistical results show that members of different cultures appropriated the resources of the interface differently in their interaction, and formed differential relations with and impressions of each other. However, analyses of the individually written essays show no statistically significant differences in learning outcomes. Implications for CSCL are discussed.
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Designing Opportunistic User Interfaces to Support a Collaborative Museum Exhibit

• Leilah Lyons , University of Illinois at Chicago

This research explores how to support collaborative learning practices when science museum visitors employ their own personal mobile devices as Opportunistic User Interfaces (O-UIs) to manipulate a simulation-based museum exhibit. The sophisticated graphical capabilities of modern mobile devices have the potential to distract visitors, a phenomenon known as the heads-down effect. To study the impact of O-UI design on collaboration, a highly-dynamic “complex” O-UI was contrasted against more simplistic, “remote-control” O-UI design, in the context of a cancer-treatment simulation. As expected, when groups used the “complex” O-UI, there was less visitor-visitor interaction, but unexpectedly, their conversations were of higher quality. They also engaged in better task division and displayed better task performance. The increased attention “simple” O-UI users were able to devote to monitoring one another’s actions seemed to encourage emergent competitive behaviors, which disproportionately affected the engagement of female visitors. “Complex” groups showed no gender-related differences in engagement.
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The Effects of Task Characteristics on Online Discussion

• Robert Jorczak , University of Minnesota

A key guidance factor of computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL) is the specification of a discussion task. Aspects of the discussion task may affect the quality of group discussion for higher-order learning. This experiment investigated the effects of two aspects of discussion task on asynchronous text discussion of an online higher-education course. Groups completed discussion assignments that varied in degree of task context and outcome specification. Content analysis was used to assess conceptual conflict and level of information processing of online messages. Results indicate that conceptual conflict is associated with higher-order discussion, but differences in task context and product do not have large effects on the quantity or quality of online discussion.
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Co-Designing Curricula to Promote Collaborative Knowledge Construction in Secondary School Science

• Vanessa L. Peters , University of Toronto
• James D. Slotta , University of Toronto

We describe a two-year study of a rich secondary science curriculum that was co-designed in close partnership with teachers, technology specialists and even school administrators. The goal of the research was to provide empirical support for a recent model of learning and instruction that blends the two perspectives of knowledge communities and scaffolded inquiry. A design-oriented method was employed, where the first iteration of the curriculum was evaluated in terms of its fit to the model, as well as its impact on student learning. Based on a set of design recommendations, a much more substantive curriculum was developed for the second iteration, leading to rich measures of student collaboration and deep understanding of the targeted science concepts. This paper describes our co-design process, which allowed teachers to lead the curriculum design and classroom enactment while researchers contributed design guidelines according to the theoretical model.
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From meaning making to joint construction of knowledge practices and artefacts – A trialogical approach to CSCL

• Sami Paavola , University of Helsinki
• Kai Hakkarainen , University of Helsinki

CSCL research is often closely connected to dialogic theories of learning and human cognition with an emphasis on shared meaning making. Without neglecting this viewpoint we give reasons for an alternative framework. We call this alternative a “trialogical” approach; it emphasizes joint and organized work with artefacts and practices as a basis for collaborative learning. The paper explains the use of this notion and clarifies theoretical backgrounds for the approach in line with the knowledge creation metaphor of learning, and relates it especially to knowledge building and socio-cultural and cultural-historical theories of human cognition. Various theories concerning mediation are briefly analyzed. The paper also explains how dialogues and trialogues are close to each other if, for example, the role of common ground is analyzed further. Lastly, design principles of the trialogical approach are concisely described.
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How Does Students’ Motivation Relate to Peer-Moderated Online Interactions?

• Kui Xie , Mississippi State University
• Fengfeng Ke , University of New Mexico

Motivation has been recognized as a crucial factor that influences learning success. However, little research as addressed students’ motivation in peer-moderated online interactions. This study conducted a content analysis of online discussions to discover how students’ motivation relates with their interaction and knowledge construction in peer-moderated online discussions. The results indicate that intrinsic motivation was significantly correlated with students’ elaboration processes and knowledge transfer. However, no significant correlation was observed between intrinsic motivation and students’ moderation behaviors. The findings suggest that instructional designers and teachers in online classes should integrate strategies to promote students’ motivation, and more importantly, they should scaffold student moderators to achieve meaningful learning in peer-moderated online discussions.
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Generative Conversations in Game-based Learning

• Lai Har Judy Lee , National Institute of Education
• Yam San Chee , National Institute of Education

This study examines a secondary level game-based learning curriculum centered on a multi-player 3D game, in which students collaboratively make sense of phenomena related to the behavior of charged particles in electric and magnetic fields. We study the interaction among the students while they enlist resources in the form of the game and curriculum materials that serve as scaffolds for sense-making. Through the consideration of coordination of the perception-conception of resources with actions related to scientific inquiry processes, potential sites for generative conversations were identified. We suggest future directions for the design and study of game-based learning curriculum to foster generative conversations that better shape students’ sense-making trajectories.
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The Spellbound Ones: Illuminating Everyday Collaborative Gaming Practices in a MMORPG

• Ulrika Bennerstedt , University of Gothenburg
• Jonas Linderoth , University of Gothenburg

A common argument about computer games and learning is that the commitment gamers have might be transformed and used in educational practices. In order to unpack gamers’ commitment, the present study investigates collaboration in a Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG). It investigates gamers’ practices in order to expose their everyday gaming activities and knowledge domains. Drawing on detailed descriptions of team gaming practices, the paper highlights that gamers’ of MMORPGs are hands-on experts in handling a game interface. Their expertise is about skilled stances tied to gaming structures. Also, gamers are members in certain communities and adhere to both community specific epistemologies and to generic ones. These gaming stances are from certain educational approaches difficult to make-sense of, while gamers’ commitments in other perspectives become means for learning. Lastly, in relation to MMORPGs and education a neglected issue concerns social pressure in gaming communities, resulting in various forms of participation.
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Around the Table: Are Multiple-Touch Surfaces Better Than Single-Touch for Children’s Collaborative Interactions?

• Amanda Harris , University of Sussex
• Jochen Rick , The Open University
• Victoria Bonnett , University of Sussex
• Nicola Yuill , University of Sussex
• Rowanne Fleck , University of Sussex
• Paul Marshall , The Open University
• Yvonne Rogers , The Open University

This paper presents a classroom study that investigated the potential of using touch tabletop technology to support children’s collaborative learning interactions. Children aged 7-10 worked in groups of three on a collaborative planning task in which they designed a seating plan for their classroom. In the single-touch condition, the tabletop surface allowed only one child to interact with the digital content at a time. In the multiple-touch condition, the children could interact with the digital content simultaneously. Results showed that touch condition did not affect the frequency or equity of interactions, but did influence the nature of children’s discussion. In the multiple-touch condition, children talked more about the task; in the single-touch condition, they talked more about turn taking. We also report age and gender differences.
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Exploring Interactional Moves in a CSCL Environment for Chinese Language Learning

• Chee-Kit Looi , Nanyang Technological University
• Wenli Chen , Nanyang Technological University
• Yun Wen , Nanyang Technological University

This work analyzes the interactions of small groups of students doing collaborative learning activities in the primary classroom for learning Chinese as a second language. We take the perspective of identifying the characteristics of interactional moves as students interact and negotiate meaning in the computer-mediated collaborative learning (CSCL) environment called GroupScribbles (GS). Much work in group cognition and in interactional analysis of small groups looks at problem-solving in subjects like mathematics and science. In language learning, the task posed for collaborative activities does not focus on problem-solving, but it may be targeted towards enriching students’ vocabulary and proficiency in language expression, developing their thoughts and writing through cogitating with new words, vocabulary and sentence construction. We hope the work can illuminate how students can co-construct knowledge mediated by GS representations for Chinese language learning. In the paper, we look at collaborative situations in which the group members are not seated together in the classroom, and so they have to collaborate through the GS medium.
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Human guidance of synchronous e-discussions: The effects of different moderation scripts on peer argumentation

• Baruch B. Schwarz , Hebrew University of Jerusalem
• Christa S.C. Asterhan , Hebrew University of Jerusalem
• Julia Gil , Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Best Paper Nominee

Researchers and educators have considered synchronicity as a less desirable mode of communication than a-synchronicity in learning tasks involving discussions. This is because synchronicity does not easily allow students to take into consideration collaborative scripts in the heat of discussions. Also, moderation by teachers of synchronous discussions has been considered as extremely challenging so far. We describe here a study in which we trained students-teachers to moderate synchronous discussions and asked them to moderate discussions in two different ways of guidance, social and argumentation guidance. We show that moderation of synchronous discussions is feasible as effects of moderation on argumentative, social and interactive aspects of the discussion reflect the kind of guidance suggested. Also we show differences between girls and boys in the way they participate in synchronous discussions and respond to the moderator's suggestions.
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Research on knowledge practices with the Contextual Activity Sampling System

• Hanni Muukkonen , University of Helsinki, Finland
• Mikko Inkinen , University of Helsinki, Finland
• Kari Kosonen , University of Helsinki, Finland
• Kai Hakkarainen , University of Helsinki, Finland
• Petri Vesikivi , Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, Finland
• Hanna Lachmann , Department of Clinical Science and Education Södersjukhuset, Sweden
• Klas Karlgren , Department of Clinical Science and Education Södersjukhuset LIME, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden

The Contextual Activity Sampling System (CASS) research methodology and the CASS-Query application have been developed for contextually tracking of activities with a mobile phone. The method relies on frequent sampling of participants’ practices and affects during periods of intensive follow-up. Two research designs provide an account of the methodological development work and the possibilities offered by CASS. The first study followed five student-groups longitudinally to examine evolution of academic knowledge practices. The findings from the second year data-collection show that trialogical practices were considered challenging, but often generated optimal-flow experiences. The second study investigated interprofessional work during a clinical course. Based on this pilot study, it was concluded that the data collected about activities and experiences over time extend the understanding of students’ practices beyond what can be acquired by post-course questionnaires and can help in development of the design of interprofessional education in medicine and health care.
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Main functionalities of the Knowledge Practices Environment (KPE) affording knowledge creation practices in education

• Minna Lakkala , Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki
• Sami Paavola , Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki
• Kari Kosonen , Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki
• Hanni Muukkonen , Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki
• Merja Bauters , Metropolia University of Applied Sciences
• Hannu Markkanen , Metropolia University of Applied Sciences

The present paper examines how to develop technology-mediated educational practices from acquisition and participation type approaches towards more sustained, collaborative knowledge creation, where students’ work is organized around developing shared epistemic objects (artefacts, processes, practices). Typical forms of technology-mediated collaborative practices in education are illustrated through a framework of ‘stairs of collaboration’ related to three metaphors of learning: knowledge acquisition, participation and knowledge creation. It is maintained that typical functionalities in existing educational web-technologies, such as various Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs), are quite inflexible and inadequate for shared work on epistemic objects. The main focus in the present paper is on describing how a basic platform supporting collaborative knowledge creation, called Knowledge Practices Environment (KPE), has been built to provide affordances to work around epistemic objects and practices.
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Exploring the effectiveness of an idea-centered design to foster a computer-supported knowledge building environment

• Huang-Yao Hong , National Chengchi University, Taiwan
• Fei-Ching Chen , National Central University, Taiwan
• Hsiu-mei Chang , National Central University, Taiwan
• Calvin C. Y. Liao , National Central University, Taiwan
• Wen-Ching Chan , National Chengchi University, Taiwan

This paper compares the effectiveness of two multimedia environments— Blackboard Learning System and Knowledge Forum—in terms of their underlying design approaches to support collaborative learning and knowledge work. The two design approaches are (1) a conventional theme-based approach, i.e., to center group collaboration and meaning interaction around themes, and (2) an idea-centered approach, i.e., to center group collaboration and meaning interaction around sustained idea exchange and improvement. Findings suggest that an idea-centered design approach seems more likely to construct an environment that fosters more dynamic group and meaning interactions, thus enabling more sustained collaborative learning and knowledge building.
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Interaction Analysis of Dual-Interaction CSCL Environments

• Murat Perit Cakir , Drexel University
• Gerry Stahl , Drexel University

Best Student Paper Nominee

In order to collaborate effectively in group discourse on a topic like mathematical patterns, group participants must organize their activities so that they have a shared understanding of the significance of their utterances, inscriptions and behaviors—adequate for sustaining productive interaction. The need for participants to coordinate their actions becomes particularly salient in dual-interaction environments, where, e.g., chat postings and graphical drawings must work together; analysts of such interactions must identify the subtle and complex ways in which meaning making proceeds. This paper considers the methodological requirements on analyzing interaction in dual-interaction environments by reviewing several exemplary CSCL studies. It reflects on the nature of social organization, grounding and indexicality that frame the interaction to be analyzed.
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Negotiation-Tools in CSCL-Scenarios - Do they have a valid use?

• Angela Carell , Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany
• Thomas Herrmann , Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany

Within discursive knowledge construction, students are expected to negotiate within their collaboration as soon as they face opinions, concepts, or meanings differing from their own. Therefore, negotiation has become a central issue of CSCL research. In an experimental field study with 16 groups of 3 individuals each, we examined whether the demand to use technically supported communication (e-negotiation) within an asynchronous and spatially distributed setting has a positive influence on group discussions and knowledge integration. Our results indicate that the implementation of e-negotiation is in fact advantageous, but does not automatically lead to a successful result. Employed intensively, e-negotiation allows group members to emphasize incompatible ideas and therefore offers advantages especially in creative problem-solving processes.
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From Handheld Collaborative Tool to Effective Classroom Module: Embedding CSCL in a Broader Design Framework

• Jeremy Roschelle , SRI International
• Ken Rafanan , SRI International
• Gucci Estrella , SRI International
• Miguel Nussbaum , Pontificia Universidad Católica
• Susana Claro , Pontificia Universidad Católica

Best Paper Nominee

The TechPALS project expanded a general-purpose handheld CSCL tool (from Chile) to a 3-week classroom module for primary school mathematics (in the United States). To go from tool to module we articulated a framework for an effective CSCL practice– including curricular fit, training materials, pedagogical guidance, formative and summative assessments, and logistical support. In parallel, to meet requirements of the U.S. Department of Education, we conducted classroom experiments to investigate the achievement differences between students who were randomized to use either TechPALS or a non-CSCL product. In this paper, we examine the design changes from initial classroom pilot tests to eventual attainment of statistically significant results, emphasizing the integration of technology, activity designs, and broader educational practices that was required to achieve impacts in ordinary, low-income schools. Based on these results, we recommend a “curricular activity system” framework to support effective CSCL practices.
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Arguing on the Computer in Scientific and Non-Scientific Domains

• Iordanou, Kalypso, Teachers College, Columbia University
• Deanna Kuhn, Teachers College, Columbia University

A method is employed to promote development of argumentation skills utilizing instant-messaging software as the medium of discourse. A major question investigated is transfer of argumentation skills across content domains. Forty sixth graders engaged in electronic discourse on a controversial topic, for half dinosaur extinction (the science topic) and for the other half homeschooling (the social topic). Participants collaborated with a same-side peer in arguing against successive pairs of peers on the opposing side of an issue; in addition they engaged in some reflective activities. Another 18 sixth graders served in a control condition. Although transfer occurred in both directions, science condition participants exhibited transfer of skills to the social topic to a greater extent than did social condition participants to the science topic. Results show the transfer of developing skills but also suggest the importance as well as feasibility of fostering argument skills in physical as well as social science domains.
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Why be a Wikipedian

• Hoda Baytiyeh , The University of Tennessee
• Jay Pfaffman , The University of Tennessee

Best Student Paper Nominee

Wikipedia is a user-edited encyclopedia. Unpaid users contribute articles, edit them, and have heated debates about what information should be included or excluded. This study is designed to learn more about why people are willing to do this work without any fiscal compensation. Wikipedia administrators (n=115) completed an online survey with Likert-scaled items of potential types of satisfaction derived from participation as well as comments that were used to check the validity of the Likert-scaled items and allow participants to say in their own words why they were Wikipedian. Results showed that contributors in Wikipedia are driven largely by motivations to learn and create.
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SCAN Tools for Collaborative Learning

• Jürgen Buder , KMRC Tübingen
• Daniel Bodemer , Universität Tübingen
• Jessica Dehler , Université de Fribourg
• Tanja Engelmann , KMRC Tübingen

SCAN tools (Social and Cognitive Awareness and Navigation tools) inform participants about social and/or cognitive variables with respect to a group and its members. This paper describes how SCAN tools facilitate and "institutionalize" the natural processes of becoming aware about social and cognitive variables, thereby leading to adaptive behavior in collaboration. The notion of person-object relations (PORs) is introduced as the basic building block underlying both group awareness and social navigation. Four design principles of SCAN tools (response formatting, juxtaposition, aggregation/transformation, and prediction/recommendation) are discussed, and their application in CSCL scenarios is described. Finally, issues for both practical implications and use-inspired basic research on SCAN mechanisms will be explored.
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Procedural and Conceptual Knowledge Acquisition in Mathematics: Where is Collaboration Helpful?

• Dejana Diziol , University of Freiburg
• Nikol Rummel , University of Freiburg
• Hans Spada , University of Freiburg

While research has generally shown that collaboration may facilitate student learning in mathematics, such positive effects are not always found. We argue that the effectiveness of collaboration may depend on the type of knowledge the instruction targets: The interaction with a partner can slow down students and may thus decrease the amount of practice necessary for procedural skill fluency. On the other hand, collaboration could be particularly useful for conceptual knowledge acquisition, as here, the elaborative meaning-making activities ascribed to collaboration may facilitate learning. To evaluate the differential effects of collaborative learning, we compared four conditions: individual versus collaborative learning with procedural instruction, and individual versus collaborative learning with conceptual instruction. The study results support our hypotheses: Students who learned individually showed higher test scores in a procedural far transfer test. However, a combination test requiring both knowledge types revealed a positive impact of collaboration on students’ conceptual knowledge acquisition.
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What have you done! The role of ‘interference’ in tangible environments for supporting collaborative learning

• Taciana Pontual Falcão , Institute of Education
• Sara Price , Institute of Education

This paper presents a study that investigated collaborative activity in a tangible tabletop environment to support learning about the physics of light. In co-located groups of three, children performed exploratory activities, using tangible artefacts, to find out about light. Analysis suggests that the environment can support various collaborative activities, but of central interest, demonstrated the role of peer interference in learning activities. Verbal negotiation and synchronization of actions emerged as conflict-resolution strategies and an implicit agreement by the children for sharing the physical and virtual resources of the system was noticed. The physicality and ‘present at hand’ nature of the input devices contributed to balanced levels of participation, particularly through action. Overall, the interference-prone tabletop environment contributed to creating a highly collaborative environment in which individual exploration was discouraged, leading the group through a productive process of collective exploration and knowledge construction.
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Examining the Relation between Domain-Related Communication and Collaborative Inquiry Learning

• Anjo Anjewierden , University of Twente
• Hannie Gijlers , University of Twente
• Bas Kolloffel , University of Twente
• Nadira Saab , Leiden University
• Robert de Hoog , University of Twente

Research has suggested that providing elaborated explanations is often more beneficial for learning than receiving explanations (e.g., Webb, 1989). Applied to chat communication in a collaborate inquiry learning environment, we would expect that in a dyad the learner with more domain-related contributions than his partner would learn more. In the paper we develop a method to examine the relation between domain-related chats and learning outcome for intuitive knowledge. We describe how we automatically extract domain-related messages, and score them based on the expected cognitive effort to produce the messages. The analysis confirms that there is a positive relation between a high score on domain-related chats and the learning improvement as measured by the difference between a post-test and a pre-test on intuitive knowledge.
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Analyzing the Role of Students’ Self-Organization in a Case of Scripted Collaboration

• Pantelis Papadopoulos , Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
• Stavros Demetriadis , Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
• Ioannis Stamelos , Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

This work analyzes a case of computer-supported scripted collaboration, focusing on how students’ self-organization affected the actual collaboration script during script run-time. Two groups of students studied learning material using a web environment designed for supporting case-based learning. The first group followed a non-scaffolded individual mode of study while students in the second group were guided by a collaboration script to work (in dyads) on the case material. Statistical analysis indicated no significant differences in the learning outcomes of the two groups. Qualitative analysis (based on students’ interviews and field observations) revealed that students’ self-organization resulted to a broad range of actual script implementation ranging from full conformance to partial violation of the script guidelines. The paper discusses the socio-cognitive role of students’ self-organization during scripted collaboration and presents suggestions for the teacher and CSCL designer in order to enhance the engagement of collaborating students to productive learning interactions.
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Argumentation scheme and shared online diagramming in case-based collaborative learning

• John Dowell , University College London
• Michael Tscholl , University of Cambridge
• Thomas Gladisch , University of Dresden
• Marzieh Asgari-Targhi , University of Manchester

Argumentation schemes describe patterns of reasoning in discourse. We report an investigation into whether the argumentation scheme known as ‘inference to the best explanation’ (IBE) captures the argumentation found in collaborative case-based learning. We examine the dialogue of three students working in an online learning environment as they attempt to explain the verdict in a legal case of medical negligence; the IDE scheme is clearly visible in the dialogue. We also report the exploratory development of shared argument diagramming tools that allow learners to draw their explanations while they discuss them. The tools passively reinforce the IBE argumentation scheme. Evaluation of the tools provided the clearest evidence to date that learners are able to integrate their shared online argument diagramming with their computer-mediated dialogue.
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Exploring the Process of Convergent Adaptation in Technology-Based Science Curriculum Construction

• Susan Yoon , University of Pennsylvania
• Lei Liu , University of Pennsylvania
• Sao-Ee Goh , University of Pennsylvania

As a core complex systems process, understanding the dynamics of individual or group adaptation can provide valuable information for constructing professional development strategies that can increase chances of instructional success. This paper reports on an exploratory study that identifies indicators of convergent vs. non-convergent adaptation between two cases of teachers working together on a technology-based curriculum construction activity and explores the relationship between group characteristics and adaptation processes. We have used the complex systems concept of adaptation as a lens for understanding how and why some teachers are better able to adapt to the educational program requirements. The results show that processes of convergence and non-convergence influenced adaptive outcomes, and that the more similar the teaching characteristic index (TCI) number was between group members, the more likely it was that group dynamics would result in convergent adaptive outcomes.
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Using Process Mining to Identify Models of Group Decision Making in Chat Data

• Peter Reimann , University of Sydney
• Jimmy Frerejean , Maastricht University
• Kate Thompson , University of Sydney

This paper introduces process modeling and mining as an approach to process analysis for CSCL. This approach is particularly relevant for collaborative learning that takes a project-based form, and is applied in this study to online chat data from teams working on a complex task. The groups differed in terms of the number of members and the amount of scaffolding aimed at group processes and task requirements. The models, produced using the HeuristicsMiner algorithm, showed that the group with fewer members that received more instruction in the task requirements had a more linear decision-making process than the group that received instruction in group processes, however neither were an example of a linear, unitary phase model. This approach has relevance both for CSCL research methods and for providing feedback to students on their decision-making processes.
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Knowledge Exchange as a Motivational Problem – Results of an Empirical Research Program

• Ulrike Cress , Knowledge Media Research Center
• Joachim Kimmerle , University of Tuebingen, Department of Applied Cognitive Psychology and Media Psychology

In many situations of computer-supported collaborative learning, it is a challenge to increase the willingness of those involved to share their knowledge with other group members. To study a prototype of such a situation of computer-supported information exchange, we arranged a shared database setting as a basis of an empirical research program. This knowledge-exchange situation represented a social dilemma: while contributing information to a shared database led to costs and provided no immediate benefit to the individual, the entire group suffered when all members decided to withhold information. A series of experiments identified a multitude of influencing factors in this situation: group size, awareness of the importance of information, costs of entering information, use-related bonus systems, feedback and recommendations, and group awareness. This paper describes the impact of these factors on people’s willingness to share their knowledge with their cooperators, and concludes with a discussion of some practical consequences.
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Collaborative learning through practices of group cognition

• Gerry Stahl , Drexel University

While there is evidence that collaborative learning consists largely of group-level practices, there has been little analysis and description of these processes as such; learning has generally been studied at the individual unit of analysis. Our research, in contrast, focuses on describing the interactional small-group practices that take place in learning contexts. This paper considers these practices and how they work together to form the foundation for effective collaborative learning activities. It analyzes collaborative learning activities in a paradigmatic CSCL setting to discuss such small-group practices as: resolving cognitive conflict, pursuing inquiry, maintaining a group problem space and coordinating multiple modes of reasoning. These have broad implications for foundational issues of temporality, indexicality and group cognition.
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Understanding and Analyzing Chat in CSCL as Reading’s Work

• Alan Zemel , Drexel University
• Murat Perit Cakir , Drexel University
• Gerry Stahl , Drexel University

Synchronous communication using text chat—often combined with a shared whiteboard—is increasingly used in CSCL. This form of interaction and learning in small online groups of students presents novel challenges, both for the participating students and for researchers studying their work. Chats differ from talk-in-interaction since the composition, posting and visual inspection of text and graphical objects by any given actor is not observable by the other participants. These structural constraints on the organization of interaction require that actors deploy alternative procedures for achieving what turn taking achieves in talk-in-interaction. This paper describes how communication is organized in text chat, where postings have to provide instructions on how they are to be read. This organization is contrasted with turn taking in face-to-face communication. The notion of “reading’s work” provides a guiding thread, which is explicated.
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The design of Peer Feedback and Reflection Tools in a CSCL environment

• Chris Phielix , Utrecht University
• Frans J. Prins , Utrecht University
• Paul A. Kirschner , Open University

This design study developed and tested a peer assessment tool and a reflection tool for enhancing group functioning in a computer-supported collaborative learning environment. The underlying assumption was that group functioning can be positively influenced by making group members aware of how their behaviour is perceived by themselves, their peers, and the group as a whole. This awareness, which is conditional for behavioural change, is achieved through a peer assessment tool and a reflection tool. A 2x2 factorial between-subjects design was used. Participants were 39 fourth-year high school students who worked in groups of 3 or 4 on a collaborative writing task. The results show that groups with both tools developed better teams, had fewer group conflicts, and had a more positive attitude towards problem solving than groups without a peer assessment tool. These results show that the tools can enhance group functioning in a CSCL-environment.
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Representational Scripting Effects on Group Performance

• Bert Slof , Utrecht University
• Gijsbert Erkens , Utrecht University
• Paul A. Kirschner , Open University / Utrecht University

This study investigated the effects of a tool designed for supporting the online collaborative performance of learners carrying out complex learning tasks. Appropriate collaborative cognitive activities may be evoked by structuring the whole learning task into phases and providing congruent external representations for each stage (i.e., representational scripting). It was hypothesized that this combination would lead to increased individual learning and better results for the collaborative task. In groups, 47 secondary education students worked on a complex business-economics problem in four experimental conditions, namely one where groups received task-congruent representations for all stages and three where they received one of the representations for all three phases (task-incongruent). The results indicate that groups that received task-congruent representations in a phased order scored higher on the collaborative task, though this did not result in increased individual learning.
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Online Discussion Design on Adult Students’ Learning Perceptions and Patterns of Online Interactions

• Fengfeng Ke, University of New Mexico
• Kui Xie, Mississippi State University

This study examined the impact of the online discussion design on adult students’ perceptions of online learning and their online interaction performance. Specifically, in this causal-comparative study we collected data with surveys and the content analysis of online discussion scripts to explore the learning impact of online discussion types (instructor-led versus student-led), the discussion grouping design (class-wide, group discussions, versus the integrated), and the computer-mediate communication (CMC) environment (asynchronous versus hybrid). The study indicated that the online discussions that were student-led and integrating class-wide and group forums predicted higher learning satisfaction and deeper learning for adult students.
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Learning and Knowledge Building with Social Software

• Joachim Kimmerle , University of Tuebingen, Department of Applied Cognitive Psychology and Media Psychology
• Johannes Moskaliuk , University of Tuebingen, Department of Applied Cognitive Psychology and Media Psychology
• Ulrike Cress , Knowledge Media Research Center

The progress of the Internet in recent years has led to the emergence of so-called social software. This technology concedes users a more active role in creating Web content. This has important effects both on individual learning and collaborative knowledge building. In this paper we will present an integrative framework model to describe and explain learning and knowledge building with social software on the basis of systems theoretical and equilibration theoretical considerations. This model assumes that knowledge progress emerges from cognitive conflicts that result from incongruities between an individual’s prior knowledge and the information which is contained in a shared digital artifact. This paper will provide empirical support for the model by applying it to Wikipedia articles and by examining knowledge-building processes using network analyses. Finally, this paper will present a review of a series of experimental studies.

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Collaborative learning in virtual seminars: Analyzing learning processes and learning outcomes

• Birgitta Kopp , University of Munich
• Katharina Schnurer , University of Munich
• Heinz Mandl , University of Munich

This paper focuses on the analysis of a virtual seminar in respect to learning processes and learning outcomes of its participants who collaborated over a four month period. To investigate the learning processes in this field study, we analyzed the learners’ contributions according to four main learning processes: epistemic activities, construction of a conceptual space, dissemination of shared knowledge, and conflict-orientation. To investigate the learning outcome, we analyzed the joint task solutions with respect to knowledge acquisition and knowledge application. Learners were assigned to three groups who had to solve four tasks relating to the main topics on knowledge management. Results show that learning processes varied depending on the tasks and groups, but no general trend was found. Furthermore, the four task solutions also differed in their quality. The fact that learning processes were related to group products confirms the relevance of learning processes for acquiring and applying knowledge.
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