Where is the evidence? A meta-analysis on the role of argumentation for the acquisition of domain-specific knowledge in computer-supported collaborative learning

This meta-analysis investigated the role of the quality of argumentation for domain-specific knowledge gains in computer-supported collaborative learning settings. Given the scarcity of primary studies that report correlations between these two variables, a meta-regression approach was employed that uses interventions' effects on argumentation to predict their effects on domain-specific knowledge. Effect sizes for 17 comparisons extracted from 12 studies were included in the analysis using a random-effects model. Moderator analyses concerning type of argumentation measure, type of knowledge test, and type of intervention were conducted. The interventions had a statistically significant small to moderate mean effect (d = 0.39) on argumentation, which varied as a function of the type of argumentation measure employed. The mean effect of the interventions on domain-specific knowledge (d = 0.22) appeared to be non-existent (d = 0.00) on the basis of the whole sample of studies, and small at best after the exclusion of three outlying effect sizes from one study. With respect to the relation of the studies' effects on argumentation to their effects on domain-specific knowledge, no unequivocal picture emerges: After the exclusion of the three outliers, the regression coefficient for predicting the studies' effects on domain-specific knowledge on the basis of their effects on argumentation was b = −0.08 and statistically not significant. These findings constitute a challenge for the broadly shared theoretical assumption that argumentation mediates the effects of interventions on domain-specific knowledge. A set of recommendations for strengthening future research on the topic is presented.     

Effects of gender grouping on students’ group performance,individual achievements and attitudes in computer-supported collaborative learning

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of gender grouping on students’ group performance, individual learning achievements and attitudes in computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL). 588 undergraduate students enrolled in a digital design course were randomly divided into 147 four-student groups that fell into five categories according to the composition of group members’ gender, namely 4M (four males), 3M1F (three males and one female), 2M2F (two males and two females), 1M3F (one male and three females) and 4F (four females). Results indicated that: (1) For group performance, 2M2F and 4F groups significantly outperformed the other groups. (2) For individual learning achievements, no significant difference was found in females among different gender grouping interventions; however, males in mixed-gender groups performed significantly better than those in single-gender groups. (3) In terms of individual attitudes, males preferred mixed-gender, gender-balanced, and gender-majority grouping; however, females preferred single-gender and gender-minority grouping. (4) The effect of gender grouping mainly influences students’ attitudes, rather than performance. These findings provide evidence that female-only and balanced-gender grouping are two kinds of good grouping interventions that could be recommended for CSCL, and male-minority groups should be avoided because they led to the worst group performance and individual attitudes.     

Capturing the participation and social dimensions of computer-supported collaborative learning through social network analysis: which method and measures matter?

International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning - The increasing use of digital learning tools and platforms in formal and informal learning settings has provided broad access to...     

Detection of hydrocephalus using machine learning in medical science – a review

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Machine learning (ML) is the study of computer algorithms that expand spontaneously by knowledge. ML algorithms construct an analytical model centred on sample...     

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.     

Exploring the social competence of students with autism spectrum conditions in a collaborative virtual learning environment – The pilot study

Social reciprocity deficits are a core feature of the autism spectrum conditions (ASCs). Many individual with ASCs have difficulty with social interaction due to a frequent lack of social competence. This study focuses on using a virtual learning environment to help the deficiencies of social competence for people with ASCs, and to increase their social interaction. Specifically, it primitively explores social competence in collaborative virtual learning environment (CVLE) systems, and behavioral performance in social and cognitive interactions. Thus, this CVLE-social interaction system involves a 3D expressive avatar, an animated social situation, and verbal as well as text-communication. A preliminary empirical study involved CVLE-social interaction systems. Three participants who had been diagnosed with ASCs were conducted using a multiple baseline research for evidence of improved social competence through usage of the system. The experimental study consisted of 17 days; and the results showed that using the CVLE-social interaction system had significant positive effects on participants’ performance, both within the CVLE-social interaction system and in terms of reciprocal social interaction learning.     

Good for learning,bad for motivation? A meta-analysis on the effects of computer-supported collaboration scripts

International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning - Scripting computer-supported collaborative learning has been shown to greatly enhance learning, but is often criticized for...     

On the “quantum-mechanical” nature of ignoring modal temporal reasonings in the analysis of some logical paradoxes

An explanation of some logical paradoxes² is proposed, reasoning from the idea of changing situations (possible worlds).     

Web 3.0 – Based personalisation of learning objects in virtual learning environments

The paper aims at research on Web 3.0 – based personalisation of learning objects (LOs) while learning in virtual learning environments. Learning personalisation is analysed in terms of suitability of LOs and VLEs to particular learning styles. The novel sets portrait analysing interconnections between students’ learning styles, their preferred learning activities, relevant teaching/learning methods, and LOs types is presented in more detail. The well-known standardised vocabularies of teaching/learning methods and LOs types were used to establish these interconnections. The sets portrait of these interconnections is followed by the appropriate ontology. The ontology is considered as an appropriate tool to create learners’ personalised learning environments consisting of LOs, suitable teaching/learning methods and activities according to their preferred learning styles. The ontology should help the learner to find suitable LOs according to preferred learning methods/activities, and vice versa, and thus to personalise learning. The presented Web 3.0 – based approaches are the typical cases of information and communication technologies (ICT’s) application for development of human capital.     

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.

     

Risky business or sharing the load? - Social flow in collaborative mobile learning

Mobile learning has been built upon the premise that we can transform traditional classroom or computer-based learning activities into a more ubiquitous and connected form of learning. Tentative outcomes from this assertion have been witnessed in many collaborative learning activities, but few analytic observations on what triggers this collaboration have so far been made. However Social Flow, a concept framework that extends Csikszentmihalyi’s flow theory, may help us to partially explain the triggering mechanism of collaborative mobile learning. Our case study in this article, where learners together explore a built environment as part of a simulated security guard training programme, describes how the concept of social flow in a collaborative learning space might sketch out what triggers an optimal learning experience in collaboration and what can be additionally achieved in a collaborative learning experience. In this learning context, collaborative mobile learning might be seen to prompt more knowledge generation and extra learning tasks by fostering greater motivation than other learning environments.     

Is the unfolding of the group discussion off-pattern? Improving coordination support in educational forums using mobile devices

A forum is a valuable tool to foster reflection in an in-depth discussion; however, it forces the course mediator to continually pay close attention in order to coordinate learners’ activities. Moreover, monitoring a forum is time consuming given that it is impossible to know in advance when new messages are going to be posted. Additionally, a forum may be inactive for a long period and suddenly receive a burst of messages forcing forum mediators to frequently log on in order to know how the discussion is unfolding to intervene whenever it is necessary. Mediators also need to deal with a large amount of messages to identify off-pattern situations. This work presents a piece of action research that investigates how to improve coordination support in a forum using mobile devices for mitigating mediator’s difficulties in following the status of a forum. Based on summarized information extracted from message meta-data, mediators consult visual information summaries on PDAs and receive textual notifications in their mobile phone. This investigation revealed that mediators used the mobile-based coordination support to keep informed on what is taking place within the forum without the need to log on their desktop computer.     

Teacher support in computer-supported lab work: bridging the gap between lab experiments and students’ conceptual understanding

This paper reports on a study of teacher support in a setting where students engaged with computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) in science. The empirical basis is an intervention study where secondary school students and their teacher performed a lab experiment in genetics supported by a digital learning environment. The analytical focus is on student-teacher interactions taking place in help-seeking settings during group-based activities where students analysed and reported their findings from the lab experiment. A combination of quantitative methods in the form of frequency counts of students’ help requests and detailed micro-analyses of student-teacher interactions are used. The findings are that the majority of challenges faced by students concerned conceptually oriented issues and procedural challenges in the sense of how to practically solve the assignments provided to them in the digital learning environment. Most importantly, the analyses of student-teacher interactions provide insight into the considerable amount of support that is needed from the teacher to bridge the conceptual gap between the lab experiment and the students’ understanding of the underlying scientific principles and procedures. The findings are discussed according to possible implications for the design of digital support tools and instruction.     

On the Development of Applications of Logic in Programming

1.Preliminary RemarksBy Logic we mean the discipline which includes proof theory,model theory,recur-sion thoery and axiomatic set theory.In recent years there is a growing recognition of therelevance of logic to computer programming.The close relationship between these twofields seems to be aptly capsuled in the formula proposed by Patrick Hayes among others     

On the allowance for support costs in Prager-Rozvany’s optimal layout theory

A recent study by Rozvany and Sokó? (Struct Multidisc Optim, 2012) discussed an important topic in structural design: the allowance for support costs in layout optimization. Herein a frequently used kind of support will be examined, that of simple foundation with horizontal reaction by friction. This support does not seem to be covered by Authors’ approach. To illustrate this case some solutions obtained by standard design rules are included.     

Are two heads always better than one? Differential effects of collaboration on students�� computer-supported learning in mathematics

While some studies found positive effects of collaboration on student learning in mathematics, others found none or even negative effects. This study evaluates whether the varying impact of collaboration can be explained by differences in the type of knowledge that is promoted by the instruction. If the instructional material requires students to reason with mathematical concepts, collaboration may increase students’ learning outcome as it promotes mutual elaboration. If, however, the instructional material is focused on practicing procedures, collaboration may result in task distribution and thus reduce practice opportunities necessary for procedural skill fluency. To evaluate differential influences of collaboration, we compared four conditions: individual vs. collaborative learning with conceptual instructional material, and individual vs. collaborative learning with procedural instructional material. The instruction was computer-supported and provided adaptive feedback. We analyzed the effect of the conditions on several levels: Logfiles of students’ problem-solving actions and video-recordings enabled a detailed analysis of performance and learning processes during instruction. In addition, a post-test assessed individual knowledge acquisition. We found that collaboration improved performance during the learning phase in both the conceptual and the procedural condition; however, conceptual and procedural material had a differential effect on the quality of student collaboration: Conceptual material promoted mutual elaboration; procedural material promoted task distribution and ineffective learning behaviors. Consequently, collaboration positively influenced conceptual knowledge acquisition, while no positive effect on procedural knowledge acquisition was found. We discuss limitations of our study, address methodological implications, and suggest practical implications for the school context.     

On the performances of the flower pollination algorithm – Qualitative and quantitative analyses

The flower pollination algorithm (FPA) is a recently proposed metaheuristic inspired by the natural phenomenon of flower pollination. Since its invention, this star-rising metaheuristic has gained a big interest in the community of metaheuristic optimisation. So, many works based on the FPA have already been proposed. However, these works have not given any deep analysis of the performances of the basic algorithm, neither of the variants already proposed. This makes it difficult to decide on the applicability of this new metaheuristic in real-world applications. This paper qualitatively and quantitatively analyses this metaheuristic. The qualitative analysis studies the basic variant of the FPA and some extensions of it. For quantitative analysis, the FPA is statistically examined through using it to solve the CEC 2013 benchmarks for real-parameter continuous optimisation, then by applying it on some of the CEC 2011 benchmarks for real-world optimisation problems. In addition, some extensions of the FPA, based on opposition-based learning and the modification of the movement equation in the global-pollination operator, are presented and also analysed in this paper. On the whole, the basic FPA has been found to offer less than average performances when compared to state-of-the-art algorithms, and the best of the proposed extensions has reached average results.