Analyzing collaborative interactions: divergence,shared understanding and construction of knowledge

One of the most important facets of collaborative learning is the interaction between individual and collaborative learning activities – between divergent perspectives and shared knowledge building. Individuals bring divergent ideas into a collaborative environment. While individuals bring their own unique knowledge and perspectives, the second important aspect of collaborative learning is how they move from seemingly divergent perspectives to collaborative knowledge building. This is clearly a social process among group members who could adopt various strategies for resolving differences including asserting dominance, acquiescing, or some form of reciprocal sense making. An important aspect of collaborative learning is the move from assimilation to construction, i.e., creating new understandings based on the discussions that they have had. Documenting this change from divergence to collaborative knowledge building to possible construction is therefore important in understanding the nature the collaborative interactions. In this paper we discuss our analysis of the process of collaborative interactions based on three dimensions – divergence of ideas, collaborative knowledge building and construction. Our aim was to document as well as to understand how collaborative interactions develop over time: whether students raise new issues (ideas) more frequently as they become more familiar with the discussion and discussants, and whether shared knowledge building becomes richer over time, and subsequent evidence that students were able to construct their own understanding based on their interactions with others. Our analyses were conducted in the context of an online graduate course conducted using the learning environment that we designed, CoDE, (Constructivist, Distributed learning Environment). In this paper, we will first describe the design of CoDE. We will then describe a study in which CoDE was used to offer an online graduate course in learning theories. We then discuss our analyses of both individual and collaborative learning as it progressed through the duration of the course.     

一个基于多代理系统的CSCL中间件

移动设备(如手机)由于屏幕小、带宽有限等因素一直在CSCL领域难有作为。该文利用代理的智能、协作等特性，结合一个已有的CSCL应用平台，设计了一种基于多代理系统的CSCL中间什模型。该模型能够根据用户移动设备的显示性能，个性化处理已有的HTML文档，基本满足学习者对课件的访问，并协助移动用户使用CSCL应用平台，与其它协同学习者交流与合作。     

一种基于知识点结构的分布式协同学习一致性模型分析

现代远程教育是基于互联网和终端实现教学活动,协同学习是提高远程学习效能感的重要方式,需要深入研究基于协同学习语义的一致性维护、协同感知等关键技术,以达到足够高效的、自然的互动化及个性化学习。提出一种远程教育特点下协同学习的一致性模型及算法分析,在此模型基础上,形成基于知识点结构的特有的操作转换算法来保持一致性。     

Web学习环境中混合协同机制的研究

针对当前基于Web的教学系统设计中协同机制的优势和不足,深入分析和讨论了当前计算机支持的协作学习技术的应用和发展,基于CSCW理论提出了教学系统设计中混合协同机制的应用方法和策略,并基于混合协同机制完成了一个远程教学应用系统的设计,充分说明了多策略协同在Web学习系统设计中的有效性和重要意义。     

基于语义网格的CSCL系统框架的设计与实现

针对目前CSCL系统普遍存在＂信息孤岛＂和资源利用率低的现状,提出将语义网格引入CSCL系统的思路,设计了一个四层的基于语义网格的CSCL系统体系结构,并且在此框架基础上给出了系统实现原型.该系统能够有效解决CSCL资源共享和整合等问题,具有良好的应用前景.     

The affordance of anchored discussion for the collaborative processing of academic texts

A system for “anchored discussion” is compared with a system for traditional forum discussion (Blackboard), and their collaborative and communicative affordances for the collaborative processing of academic texts are investigated. Results show that discussion in the system for anchored discussion is more directed at processing the meaning of texts than discussion in the traditional forum, which is more oriented towards the sharing of personal opinions and experiences. This difference in orientation produces a more constructive collaboration in the system for anchored discussion, versus a more debate-like collaboration in the forum discussion. Additionally, while messages in the traditional forum resemble usual discussion or email conversation and contain social and regulative comments, discussion in the system for anchored discussion is seen to be more efficient and “to-the-point.” We conclude that for collaborative text comprehension by undergraduate students, anchored discussion might be more suitable than traditional forum discussion. Finally, the observed differences can be explained by the stronger defined collaborative context in the system for anchored discussion, which focuses participants’ collaborative intentions and their frames of reference.     

Measuring causality between collaborative and individual gaze metrics for collaborative problem-solving with intelligent tutoring systems

When students are working collaboratively and communicating verbally in a technology-enhanced environment, the system cannot track what collaboration is happening outside of the technology, making it difficult to fully assess the collaboration of the students and adapt accordingly. In this article, we propose using gaze measures as a proxy for cognitive processes to achieve collaboration awareness. Specifically, we use Granger causality to analyse the causal relationships between collaborative and individual gaze measures from students working on a fractions intelligent tutoring system and the influence that the students' dialogue, prior knowledge, or success has on these relationships. We found that collaborative gaze patterns drive the individual focus in the pairs with high posttest scores and when they are engaged in problem-solving dialogues but the opposite with low performing students. Our work adds to the literature by extending the correlational relationships between individual and collaborative gaze measures to causal relationships and suggests indicators that can be used within an adaptive system.     

CSCL系统中的学习效果评估

介绍了计算机支持的协同学习的基本理论及模型,并在此基础上构建了教学评估系统.通过将GSPT概念引入CSCL领域,有效地解决了网络教学效果的评估问题,通过构建双闭环学习评估系统,将学生个体学习的效果和整体课程教学效果有机地结合了起来,用PCE和模糊评估法解决评估系统的关键问题.     

计算机支持的协同学习系统中负载均衡技术研究

计算机支持的协同学习系统能够帮助分布在不同地域的学习人员共享资源、实现学习者之间的合作.然而,系统在进行学习交流时所产生的数据流量和计算强度之大,通常让单一的服务器无法承受.本文首先介绍了常用的负载均衡技术和调度算法,并针对协同学习系统的特点,结合NAT负载均衡技术和TCP传递机制,提出了一种新的动态加权轮循均衡算法,实现了系统的负载均衡.     

Genre and CSCL: The form and rhetoric of the online posting

Genre analysis, the investigation of typified communicative actions arising in recurrent situations, has been developed to study information use and interchange online, in businesses and in other organizations. As such, it holds out promise for the investigation of similarly typified communicative actions and situations in CSCL contexts. This study explores this promise, beginning with an overview of ways that genre analysis has been adapted and applied in related areas: in the study of group behavior in organizations, and of evolving and proliferating communicative forms, actions, and situations on the Internet (e-mails, blogs, FAQs, etc.). Focusing on the particular genre of the Internet “posting” in CSCL contexts, the paper hypothesizes that the educational use of this genre bears recognizable similarities with its generic antecedent, the letter. In testing this hypothesis, the paper describes a pilot case study of a set of CSCL postings (n = 136), which attempts to quantify the occurrence of rhetorical characteristics common to both the epistolary and CSCL “genres.” This content analysis shows the recurrence in this sample of a range of rhetorical markers (240 in total) that are characteristic of epistolary dynamics. It concludes by considering the implications of these findings and of a “genre approach” for CSCL research generally, and for community of inquiry models in particular.