Collaborative design: Improving efficiency by concurrent execution of Boolean tasks

Computer-Aided Design (CAD) applications provide design and engineering professionals with various computer-based tools to perform design activities. As efficiency is one of the most important requirements in most design tasks, in this article, we contribute a novel collaborative design approach to improving efficiency, where a complex design task can be divided and executed concurrently by multiple collaborative designers. This approach is particularly effective for design tasks where Boolean operations – widely supported by most CAD applications – are heavily used in design activities, such as architecture design, mechanical design and digital media design. We have designed and implemented a prototype system CoAutoCAD to test the approach and to demonstrate a variety of collaborative design activities.     

Understanding collaborative learning activities in an information ecology: A distributed cognition account

Collaborative learning encloses a diversity of activities, interactions, and practices. Thus, designing a learning environment, potentially enhanced with technology, to support collaborative learning, is not an easy task. Using an in-class exploration involving four multidisciplinary teams, this research seeks to understand collaborative design activities within “InfoSpace” – an information ecology. That is, a collocated space enriched with a multiple interlinked heterogeneous technologies. The aim of the study is to explore how an information ecology works as an integrated cognitive system, through the lenses of distributed cognition. Through the analysis we constructed a detailed account of the information flow, physical layout and artefact models. We claim that distributed cognition framework can provide a lens for understanding interactions among learners, tasks, and tools in collocated technology enhanced learning environments. Furthermore, the analysis provides valuable insights on how the design of the information ecology supports collaboration and coordination.     

The conceptual framing,design and evaluation of device ecologies for collaborative activities

A variety of computing technologies, in addition to the personal computer, are now commonly used in many settings. As networking infrastructures mature, it is increasingly feasible and affordable to consider closer integration and use of these heterogeneous devices in tandem. However, little is known about how best to design or evaluate such ‘device ecologies’; in particular, how best to combine devices to achieve a desired type of collaborative user experience. A central concern is how users switch their attention between devices, to utilize the various elements to best effect. We describe here the development of an ecology of devices for groups of students to use when engaged in collaborative inquiry-learning activities. This included a multi-touch tabletop, laptops, projections, video streams and telephone. In situ studies of students and tutors using it in three different settings showed how individuals and groups switched their foci between the multiple devices. We present our findings, using a novel method for analysing users’ transitions between foci, identifying patterns and emergent characteristics. We then discuss the importance of designing for transitions that enable groups to appropriately utilise an ecology of devices, using the concepts of seams, bridges, niches and focal character.     

A Glance into Social and Evolutionary Aspects of an Artifact Ecology for Collaborative Learning through the Lens of Distributed Cognition

There is steadily growing interest in the design and evaluation of digitally enhanced spaces in the real-world where users use, combine, and appropriate different physical and digital tools based on the task at hand. Under the notion of “ubiquitous computing,” researchers have explored tools and theories to analyze, understand, and model users in complex socio-technical systems. Yet, even though theoretical approaches play a significant role in the work of practitioners, there is a general difficulty in applying them, pushing researchers to explore methodological frameworks with clearer guidelines. Using the distributed cognition for teamwork (DiCoT) framework, we study collaboration and communication patterns, physical movement, and social structures of two groups of learners working on a design problem as they evolve over a 3-month period. Through an in-depth investigation, we present detailed accounts of the social and evolutionary models of DiCoT for each group. Our analysis enriches the DiCoT framework by identifying five new principles: social emersion and social circles of privacy for the social model, and continuity, mutual adaptation, and semantics of body for the evolutionary model. This article contributes to HCI research by refining and extending the existing DiCoT framework and elaborating on two dimensions that have previously been under-developed in the literature.     

The design and realization of CoViD: a system for collaborative virtual 3D design

Many important decisions in the design process are made during fairly early on, after designers have presented initial concepts. In many domains, these concepts are already realized as 3D digital models. Then, in a meeting, the stakeholders for the project get together and evaluate these potential solutions. Frequently, the participants in this meeting want to interactively modify the proposed 3D designs to explore the design space better. Today’s systems and tools do not support this, as computer systems typically support only a single user and computer-aided design tools require significant training. This paper presents the design of a new system to facilitate a collaborative 3D design process. First, we discuss a set of guidelines which have been introduced by others and that are relevant to collaborative 3D design systems. Then, we introduce the new system, which consists of two main parts. The first part is an easy-to-use conceptual 3D design tool that can be used productively even by naive users. The tool provides novel interaction techniques that support important properties of conceptual design. The user interface is non-obtrusive, easy-to-learn, and supports rapid creation and modification of 3D models. The second part is a novel infrastructure for collaborative work, which offers an interactive table and several large interactive displays in a semi-immersive setup. It is designed to support multiple users working together. This infrastructure also includes novel pointing devices that work both as a stylus and a remote pointing device. The combination of the (modified) design tool with the collaborative infrastructure forms a new platform for collaborative virtual 3D design. Then, we present an evaluation of the system against the guidelines for collaborative 3D design. Finally, we present results of a preliminary user study, which asked naive users to collaborate in a 3D design task on the new system.     

Combining interaction and context design to support collaborative argumentation using a tool for synchronous CMC

Abstract Empirical studies and theory suggest that educational dialogue can be used to support learners in the development of reasoning, critical thinking and argumentation. This paper presents an educational design for synchronous online peer discussion that guides student dialogue in ways that lead to improved argumentation and collaborative knowledge development. This design includes a mediating interface – or tool, linked to a broader set of online educational activities – a designed local context, where the latter aims to provide conditions that support argumentation. The approach is based on collaborative working and dialogue game approaches to discussion. Preliminary findings with UK Open University students showed the argumentation process was more coherent, varied, deeper and extended when using our interaction design compared with the use of a simple unstructured interface.     

Studying distributed cognition of simulation-based team training with DiCoT

Health care organizations employ simulation-based team training (SBTT) to improve skill, communication and coordination in a broad range of critical care contexts. Quantitative approaches, such as team performance measurements, are predominantly used to measure SBTTs effectiveness. However, a practical evaluation method that examines how this approach supports cognition and teamwork is missing. We have applied Distributed Cognition for Teamwork (DiCoT), a method for analysing cognition and collaboration aspects of work settings, with the purpose of assessing the methodology’s usefulness for evaluating SBTTs. In a case study, we observed and analysed four Emergo Train System® simulation exercises where medical professionals trained emergency response routines. The study suggests that DiCoT is an applicable and learnable tool for determining key distributed cognition attributes of SBTTs that are of importance for the simulation validity of training environments. Moreover, we discuss and exemplify how DiCoT supports design of SBTTs with a focus on transfer and validity characteristics.

Practitioner Summary: In this study, we have evaluated a method to assess simulation-based team training environments from a cognitive ergonomics perspective. Using a case study, we analysed Distributed Cognition for Teamwork (DiCoT) by applying it to the Emergo Train System®. We conclude that DiCoT is useful for SBTT evaluation and simulator (re)design.     

Supporting collaborative design activity in a multi-user digital design ecology

Across a broad range of design professions, there has been extensive research on design practices and considerable progress in creating new computer-based systems that support design work. Our research is focused on educational/instructional design for students' learning. In this sub-field, progress has been more limited. In particular, neither research nor systems development have paid much attention to the fact that design is becoming a more collaborative endeavor. This paper reports the latest research outcomes from R&D in the Educational Design Studio (EDS), a facility developed iteratively over four years to support and understand collaborative, real-time, co-present design work. The EDS serves to (i) enhance our scientific understanding of design processes and design cognition and (ii) provide insights into how designers' work can be improved through appropriate technological support. In the study presented here, we introduced a complex, multi-user, digital design tool into the existing ecology of tools and resources available in the EDS. We analysed the activity of four pairs of ‘teacher-designers’ during a design task. We identified different behaviors - in reconfiguring the task, the working methods and toolset usage. Our data provide new insights about the affordances of different digital and analogue design surfaces used in the Studio.     

Human-centered approaches in geovisualization design: investigating multiple methods through a long-term case study

Working with three domain specialists we investigate human-centered approaches to geovisualization following an ISO13407 taxonomy covering context of use, requirements and early stages of design. Our case study, undertaken over three years, draws attention to repeating trends: that generic approaches fail to elicit adequate requirements for geovis application design; that the use of real data is key to understanding needs and possibilities; that trust and knowledge must be built and developed with collaborators. These processes take time but modified human-centred approaches can be effective. A scenario developed through contextual inquiry but supplemented with domain data and graphics is useful to geovis designers. Wireframe, paper and digital prototypes enable successful communication between specialist and geovis domains when incorporating real and interesting data, prompting exploratory behaviour and eliciting previously unconsidered requirements. Paper prototypes are particularly successful at eliciting suggestions, especially for novel visualization. Enabling specialists to explore their data freely with a digital prototype is as effective as using a structured task protocol and is easier to administer. Autoethnography has potential for framing the design process. We conclude that a common understanding of context of use, domain data and visualization possibilities are essential to successful geovis design and develop as this progresses. HC approaches can make a significant contribution here. However, modified approaches, applied with flexibility, are most promising. We advise early, collaborative engagement with data – through simple, transient visual artefacts supported by data sketches and existing designs – before moving to successively more sophisticated data wireframes and data prototypes.     

Healthcare support for underserved communities using a mobile social media platform

Emerging digital technologies for healthcare information support have already contributed to reducing the digital divide among rural communities. Although mobile health (m-health) applications facilitate provision of support for treatment consultation in real-time, their substantial potential has not yet been operationalised for decision support to meet citizen demand in developing nations. Modern healthcare information access, especially in rural areas of developing countries, is critical to effective healthcare, since both information and expert opinions are limited. Mobile phone and social media penetration, however, is often extensive. In this paper, we design and evaluate an innovative mobile decision support system (MDSS) solution for rural citizens healthcare decision support and information dissemination.Developed using a design science approach, the instantiated artifact connects underserved rural patients in Bangladesh to general practitioners (GPs) – allowing GPs, based on queries and information support provided, to evaluate patient conditions virtually and provide answers for further diagnosis or treatment. A cloud platform using social media embodies health record information and is used with a rating technique that matches queries to profiled remote experts, participating asynchronously. A comprehensive evaluation of the MDSS artifact ensures its utility, efficacy, and reliability.     

Does collaborative learning design align with enactment? An innovative method of evaluating the alignment in the CSCL context

This study reports on a novel design methodology, namely, design-centered research (DCR), developed to analyze and evaluate the alignment between an online collaborative learning design and its enactment. The approach is illustrated in a study involving 40 groups in total. Twenty different online collaborative learning activities were designed and enacted by 20 groups of three students in each of two iterations. The collaborative learning design plans from the first round were adjusted after reflecting on misalignments observed through the method during the enactment, and then enacted and tested again by another 20 groups in the second round. The proposed method involves an interaction path graph as well as three proposed indicators of group functioning. These three indicators include: (a) the range of activated knowledge, (b) the degree of knowledge building, and (c) an interactivity of the approach. This approach to quantification of alignment between a collaborative learning design and its enactment was successful in revealing areas for improvement of the design. The results of the two round study indicate that the alignment significantly improved after the optimization of the collaborative learning design based on the analysis of the first round. The findings also suggest that optimizing a collaborative learning design using this method is associated with improvements in group performance. Building on these findings, the collaborative learning design framework is discussed in detail in this article, and resulting implications for practitioners are discussed in depth.

     

Enacting artifact-based activities for social technologies in language learning using a design-based research approach

This paper presents the results of a three-year design-based research (DBR) study on the use of social technologies for collaborative construction of shareable artifacts by groups of learners. The study builds on the learning theory of constructionism which assumes that knowledge is better gained when students find this knowledge for themselves while engaging in the making of concrete and public artifacts. In an attempt to infuse elements of constructionism in the use of social technologies, we tasked groups of learners in language learning courses with collaborative construction of an artifact using social technologies. A unique characteristic of our approach is that the process that students adopted and the way technology and context fostered this procedure was analyzed. The cycle of DBR fueled deep insights into the learning processes that emerged through the construction of an artifact, thus deepening our understanding of the multimode and multi-trajectory relationship between theory, artifact construction and social technologies. For sustaining and orchestrating social construction of artifacts by groups of learners, a set of instructional elements emerged, as well as implications for enacting social technology innovations in real-life classrooms.     

Smartphones or laptops in the collaborative classroom? A study of video-based learning in higher education

This paper explores how the use of smartphones vs. laptops influences students’ engagement, behaviour and experience watching academic videos in a collaborative classroom. Experiments were run in authentic teaching sessions with a total of 483 first-year higher education students. The methodology applied is a quasi-experimental design with post-test-only, being the independent variable, the device used to visualise the academic videos. Results indicate that the use of laptops has provided better results in terms of student’s engagement with the videos, their collaborative behaviour and satisfaction with the device. Hence, the findings of this research suggest that the type of mobile device used in activities that consider the use of videos in a collaborative class need to be carefully chosen to maximise the student’s comfortability – and in consequence, their engagement with the video-based learning activity and their positive behaviour and experience within the collaborative context.     

‘Worksome but Rewarding’ –Stakeholder Perceptions on Value in Collaborative Design Work

In this paper, we examine collaborative design projects in school contexts with many different stakeholders. We look at the value created for and by different stakeholders, focusing on value as a benefit, which is experienced – perceived and determined – by the beneficiaries themselves in the value co-creation process. As our focus is in “value-in-use”, i.e., value which emerges through activities taking place in a specific space, time, and context, we define value through subjective experience of people involved. We apply in our study the concept of value co-creation, where value is understood emerging from collaborative activity between actors participating in the activity. We see that the value co-creation lens provides a useful means for the CSCW community to scrutinize and make sense of collaborative design projects. We categorized the perceived value for each stakeholder and discuss how these categories can help in gaining a deeper understanding of the value gained in collaborative design work as well as how value co-creation lens in more general can be used as a tool in collaborative design projects.     

The foundations of a theory-aware authoring tool for CSCL design

One of the most useful ways to enhance collaboration is to create scenarios where learners are able to interact more effectively. Nevertheless, the design of pedagogically sound and well-thought-out collaborative learning scenarios is a complex issue. This is due to the context of group learning where the synergy among learners’ interactions affects learning processes and, hence, the learning outcome. Although many advances have been made to support the designing of collaborative learning scenarios through technology, a more systematic approach is lacking. With the limitations of the current designing methods and tools, it is difficult to develop intelligent authoring systems that can guide users in order to produce more effective collaboration. One of the main difficulties with creating a more consistent (computer-understandable) approach to designing collaboration is the necessity of proposing better ways to formalize the group learning processes. In this paper, we present an innovative approach that uses ontologies and concepts from learning theories to create a framework that represents collaborative learning and its processes. Ontologies provide the necessary formalization to represent collaboration, while learning theories provide the concepts to justify and support the development of effective learning scenarios. Such an approach contributes to establish the foundations for the development of the next generation of intelligent authoring systems referred to as theory-aware systems. To verify the viability and usefulness of our proposed ontological framework in the context of systematic design, the development and use of an intelligent authoring tool for CSCL design is presented. This system is able to reason on ontologies to give suggestions that help users to create theory-compliant collaborative learning scenarios. We carried out several experiments with teachers in a geometry drawing course and the results indicate that the system helps teachers to create and interchange their scenarios more easily and facilitates the selection of important pedagogical strategies that influence positively the designing and effectiveness of group activities.     

Embodied experiences of place: a study of history learning with mobile technologies

This paper reports an empirical study that takes a multimodal analytical approach to examine how mobile technologies shape students' exploration and experience of place during a history learning activity in situ. In history education, mobile technologies provide opportunities for authentic experiential learning activities that have the potential to re‐mediate students' understanding of space and place through enacted interaction, and to make the learning more memorable. A key question is how learners work with the physical and digital information in the context of that learning experience, and how this supports new experiences and understanding of space and place. Findings suggest that embodied mobile experiences foster the creation of both physical and digital markers, which were instrumental in concretizing the history experience and developing new narratives. The findings also show how different representational forms of digital information mediated interaction in specific ways and how digital augmentation can lead to conflation in student understanding of space and time. These findings inform our understanding of the value of mobile applications in supporting embodied learning experiences and provide key implications for pedagogical design, both in situ and back in the classroom.     

Designing collaborative environments for strategic knowledge in design

This paper considers aspects of strategic knowledge in design and some implications for designing in collaborative environments. Two key questions underline the concerns. First, how can strategic knowledge for collaborative design be taught and second, what kind of computer-based collaborative designing might best support the learning of strategic knowledge? We argue that the support of learning of strategic knowledge in collaborative design by computer-mediated means must be based upon empirical evidence about the nature of learning and design practice in the real world. This evidence suggests different ways of using computer support for design learning and acquisition of strategic design knowledge. Examples of research by the authors that seeks to provide that evidence are described and an approach to computer system design and evaluation proposed.     

Reflections on interdisciplinary team development for the design of a platform for computer supported collaborative play

The Constructed Narratives project has been designed for use in public spaces where there is the opportunity for individuals and groups of people, who are not acquainted with each other, to encounter the game and subsequently each other. The goal is to provide a platform that supports discourse in environments where ‘keeping comfortable distance’ between oneself and others is the norm. The system framework developed for this project can be applied for use in computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL), and collaborative design activities in the tradition of computer supported collaborative work (CSCW). The current domain explored in the Constructed Narratives project is computer systems designed to enable shared experience through play, or computer supported collaborative play (CSCP). This paper examines the learner-centred design methodologies used for the development of the physical artifacts and underlying software and hardware system architecture for the Constructed Narratives project. The design methodology demonstrates how an interdisciplinary team of artists, designers, and technologists can exploit the opportunities inherent in this ‘symmetry of ignorance’ to find solutions for multiple wicked design problems that can arise during the development of an integrated software and hardware system.     

Unified modeling for digital twin of a knowledge-based system design

While Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) improves the ambiguity problem of the conventional document-based way, it brings management complexity. Faced with the complexity, one of the core issues that companies care about is how to effectively evaluate, predict, and manage it in the early system design stage. The inaccuracy of contemporary complexity measurement approaches still exits due to the inconsistency between the actual design process in physical space and the theoretical simulation in virtual space. Digital Twin (DT) provides a promising way to alleviate the problem by bridging the physical space and virtual space. Aiming to integrate DT with MBSE for the system design complexity analysis and prediction, based on previous work, an integration framework named System Design Digital Twin in 5 Dimensions was introduced from a knowledge perspective. The framework provides services for design complexity measurement, effort estimation, and change propagation prediction. Then, to represent the system design digital twin in a unified way, a modeling profile is constructed through SysML stereotypes. The modeling profile includes System design digital model in virtual space profile, system services profile, relationships profile and digital twin data profile. Finally, the system design of a cube-satellite space mission demonstrates the proposed unfiled modeling approach.