Support of the collaborative inquiry learning process: influence of support on task and team regulation

Regulation of the learning process is an important condition for efficient and effective learning. In collaborative learning, students have to regulate their collaborative activities (team regulation) next to the regulation of their own learning process focused on the task at hand (task regulation). In this study, we investigate how support of collaborative inquiry learning can influence the use of regulative activities of students. Furthermore, we explore the possible relations between task regulation, team regulation and learning results. This study involves tenth-grade students who worked in pairs in a collaborative inquiry learning environment that was based on a computer simulation, Collisions, developed in the program SimQuest. Students of the same team worked on two different computers and communicated through chat. Chat logs of students from three different conditions are compared. Students in the first condition did not receive any support at all (Control condition). In the second condition, students received an instruction in effective communication, the RIDE rules (RIDE condition). In the third condition, students were, in addition to receiving the RIDE rules instruction, supported by the Collaborative Hypothesis Tool (CHT), which helped the students with formulating hypotheses together (CHT condition). The results show that students overall used more team regulation than task regulation. In the RIDE condition and the CHT condition, students regulated their team activities most often. Moreover, in the CHT condition the regulation of team activities was positively related to the learning results. We can conclude that different measures of support can enhance the use of team regulative activities, which in turn can lead to better learning results.     

基于BBS的异步协作学习互动研究

网络环境下的异步协作学习方式越来越受到教育工作者的关注,因为它能够为学习者提供延时性交流与协作环境,便于学习者能够以小组或个人的形式参与到学习讨论之中。为了探讨基于BBS的异步协作学习互动过程,通过以案例形式进行实证性研究,其中,运用了会话内容分析法、调查法等方法,对异步协作学习活动中的帖子总体数量情况、各组发帖时间情况、帖子间关系情况以及基于知识建构模型的异步协作学习过程进行了详细的分析。研究结果表明,异步协作学习活动促进了学生的自主学习能力的发展,但是在活动中存在的问题值得教育工作者的思考。因此,研究对于指导异步协作学习互动活动的开展具有积极的参考价值。     

The effects of goal-oriented instructions in digital game-based learning

Few studies have investigated the effects of the instructions provided in educational computer games on cognitive processing and learning outcomes. In our experiment, we sought to compare the effects on learning outcomes of two different types of goal-oriented instructions: mastery-goal instructions, which prompt learners to develop skills or master new knowledge, and performance-goal instructions, which are frequently used in game environments and which encourage individuals to demonstrate their ability to succeed, particularly by surpassing others. Results showed that a mastery-goal instruction elicited deeper learning (as assessed with a transfer task) than a performance-goal instruction. No effect of instruction was observed on either learning (demonstration consultation) times at the start of the game or on training task (solving riddles) performances during it. These results are discussed in terms of learning processes. This study demonstrates that mastery goal-oriented instructions can promote active processing of educational content in a serious game environment.     

移动网络即时协作学习平台关键技术研究

移动学习平台是促进移动学习快速发展的重要因素,无线网络技术和移动通信技术及其相关移动终端设备的快速普及,使得基于有线网络和个人计算机的网络学习平台已不能满足当前学习者的实际需求.从无线移动网络环境下学习者的实际要求出发,研究具有移动Web即时通信、资源实时移动共享等功能的移动网络即时协作学习平台的体系机构和系统功能,探究实现该系统平台的关键技术,以便为移动学习者提供一种支持即时协作交流、实时共享资源与知识经验的新型移动网络即时协作学习平台.     

Inclusive dyslexia-friendly collaborative online learning environment: Malaysia case study

Currently available web page accessibility guidelines focus more on reading and writing, with inadequate attention to other aspects of online learning such as computer-mediated communication. This study aims to explore the engagement of Malaysia secondary school students with dyslexia and students without dyslexia on various synchronous and asynchronous communication interaction technologies in an online collaborative learning environment. Multiple case within subject qualitative study was employed to investigate the engagement of students using a semi structured interview guideline. The findings revealed that (1) text chat is unsuitable for learning discussion for all learners, (2) forum affords self-paced and organized formal discussion for most learners and (3) video conferencing is suitable for interactive face-to-face, verbal discussion for most learners.     

《教学系统设计》网络课程中学习论坛的设计与开发

随着网络教育的兴起,协作与交互在网络教学中起着重要的作用,学习论坛作为网络课程中重要的有机组成部分,是学习者进行协作-9交互的重要工具。针对当前网络课程中学习论坛存在的问题,以教学设计论坛为例,阐述了在实践中运用ASP技术、ADO技术、ACCESS后台数据库等设计开发功能完善的学习论坛的过程,旨在改变当前学习论坛倍受冷落现状,使学习论坛真正成为网络教育中学习者有效的交流工具。     

The collaborative language learning attributes of cyber face-to-face interaction: the perspectives of the learner

This article examines the degrees of collaborative language learning that were supported in cyber face-to-face interaction. The concept of “cyber face-to-face” is used here to encapsulate the kind of environment in which a combination of real-time oral/aural, visual, and text-based interaction happens simultaneously via the various features in an advanced Synchronous Learning Management System (SLMS). The study discusses the results of an evaluation of the five features, namely, the interactive whiteboard, the text chat, the group cyber face-to-face classrooms, the audio, and the video, in an SLMS called 3C. Thirty-three students from an online Chinese/English interpreting course participated in this study. Survey data indicate that collaborative learning can be effectively facilitated in a cyber face-to-face environment, although the degrees of collaboration vary among the five features evaluated. Recommendations for maximizing the collaborative learning potentials of a cyber face-to-face environment are also put forward.     

Professional noticing of coordinated mathematical thinking

Over the past three decades, research and policy in many geographic regions has promoted a shift from direct, lecture-oriented mathematics instruction to inquiry-based, dialogic forms of instruction. While theory and research support dialogic instructional approaches, some have noted that the complexities of dialogic teaching make it difficult for teachers to implement. One mechanism by which teachers can improve their decision-making practices in dialogic classrooms is learning to notice (i.e. becoming aware of learners’ processes). While research has contributed frameworks for understanding how teachers notice individual learners’ mathematical thinking, there is little conceptualization regarding how teachers notice group processes in mathematics classrooms, which is integral to dialogic instruction. We offer a noticing framework termed professional noticing of coordinated mathematical thinking that describes how teachers notice group activity in mathematics classrooms. Professional noticing of coordinated mathematical thinking is conceptualized as a bi-dimensional process: noticing groups’ mathematical activity and noticing groups’ coordinated activity. Teachers must become aware of how groups approach the mathematical and collaborative nature of a task, since both of these aspects inform whether learners develop opportunities to learn in groups. The framework describes noticing practices integral to dialogic instruction and promotes inquiry for future research related to teaching moves in dialogic classrooms.     

Using digital board games for genuine communication in EFL classrooms

EFL learners in Taiwan have a low-level communication ability because many learners are still not provided opportunities to use language for genuine communication in classrooms and receive insufficient language input due to the environment. This study examines the use of digital board game language learning set in a task-collaborative platform, digital learning playground, designed for classroom learning. This study investigates whether communicative skills and intrinsic motivation could be improved by seeing relevant context and receiving adequate practice through gaming. Ninety-six high school Taiwanese students (n = 96), who were randomly assigned to an ordinary instruction group, a board game language-learning group, or a digital board game language-learning group, engaged in a 50-min English class. Analysis of covariance was used for comparing learning performance through a speaking test between the three groups. A modified intrinsic motivation inventory was conducted to assess learners’ perceptions of learning experience and an interview was held for details. The quantitative data presents a higher learning performance for the instruction set at digital learning playground. The qualitative data confirms computerized simulation adapted from board game entails context-relevant immersion, encouraging communication and efficient game instruction management for EFL language learning.     

智能教学系统中支持协作学习的群体感知模型

自主学习和协作学习是相互促进、相互依赖的网络学习方式。然而,目前典型的网络学习系统(智能教学系统和计算机支持的协作学习系统)大多将自主学习和协作学习强制分离,忽视了自主学习过程中协作交流的激励作用以及协作学习过程中学习者的自主学习需求。因此,扩展现有的智能教学系统,构建一个自主学习和协作学习有机融合的数字化学习环境,有助于更好地满足网络环境下师生的学习需求。支持协作学习的群体感知模型由群体感知信息、群体感知本体和群体感知规则三部分组成,采用本体技术建模协作感知信息,运用语义Web规则语言刻画协作感知机制,为实现协作学习的信息交互提供通用模型。基于该模型构建的智能教学系统,在原有ITS自主学习环境的基础上,扩展了参与者可以相互感知、相互交流的协作学习模块,实现与现有智能教学系统的无缝整合,为开发具有协作学习功能的智能教学系统提供了技术参考。     

Designing Adaptive Interventions for Online Collaborative Modeling

One of the characteristics of collaborative learning is that it offers opportunities for learners to reflect and justify their work, to compare, understand and criticize their peers' work, and to iterate through these processes as needed. This paper presents a design of a system that supports learners in taking advantage of these collaboration affordances in the context of collaborative modeling. The main focus is the automatic generation of adaptive interventions for the process of qualitative modeling of physical phenomena. Students interact with the learning environment by running a simulation, using visual tools for qualitative modeling, and communicating with each other through special tools and free text. The system tracks and analyses learners' activities that relate to the subject matter tasks as well as to the communication between the learners and generates interventions accordingly. The layered interventions are designed also to integrate communication and content issues.     

Visual Instruction to Enhance Teaching of Technical Subject to Design Students

Visual instruction complementing verbal lectures is known to promote learning among students. In this study, the role of visual instruction in engaging learners effectively via the simplification of technical concepts was examined. Different aspects of visualisation, such as order of presenting and dimensionality, were tested to observe their effect on students’ approach to learning and learning outcomes. In this mixed‐method quasi‐non‐experimental explanatory study, visual instruction was applied in one of the undergraduate architecture modules that teaches fundamentals of building systems, which students often find difficult to comprehend. Three key variables, including spatial cognitive ability, approach to learning and learning outcomes, were measured using statistically valid instruments along with students’ feedback and interviews. These factors were also measured for the control group that did not receive visual instruction (n = 32), to assess the effect of the intervention. When taught with visualisation, students (n = 69), showed a significant increase in deep approach to learning (e.g., deep motive: t = 2.584, p = 0.011). In interviews, students expressed a deeper interest in the subject and reported that the topic was engaging in class. Visualisation favours students with a higher spatial ability and, thus, is useful for design students who receive spatial ability training in the course. Two‐dimensional visuals must be followed and preceded by three‐dimensional visuals to provide advanced organisation and the connection of new knowledge with known organisational models to be made.     

构建基于网络环境下的PLC课程协作学习模式

基于网络环境下的协作学习,能够激发学习者的学习动机,消除学习的孤独感,有利于培养学习者之间的合作交流能力和创新能力,增强互助意识,提高学习效率。根据协作学习的特点,探讨了基于网络环境下PLC课程协作学习的教学设计和实施。     

在线协作学习中小组学习投入的分析模型构建及应用

在协作学习中学习投入与学习成效紧密相关,是学生进行有效参与和深度学习的必要条件。但目前的研究大多针对个人学习投入,缺乏在协作学习中小组学习投入的相关研究。在前人研究基础上,本研究从认知投入、行为投入、社会投入、情感投入四个维度构建了在线协作学习中小组学习投入的分析模型,并通过实证研究进一步探索小组投入分析模型各维度与小组学习成绩之间的关系。结果表明,在小组学习投入中行为投入、社交投入与小组成绩呈显著正相关关系,而积极、消极、困惑三类情感投入则与小组成绩呈负相关关系。研究同时发现,高分组在中立情感投入、认知投入的问题和元认知维度中的均值都高于低分组。最后,通过分析在线小组学习投入与成绩之间的关系,为今后优化学习支持服务以及提高小组成员协作质量提供了依据。     

Challenges for collaborative blended learning in undergraduate students

This study reports a quasi-experiment in collaborative blended learning (CBL) with undergraduate students who, despite being in a world-leading, enriched digital environment, were new to collaboration and CBL. The mixed-methods research found that only small improvements to students’ CBL took place over time, and explanations for this are proffered. The study found that the students needed specific and intensive instruction, practice, and development in how to collaborate, both with and without blended learning. Students discovered and appreciated the benefits, pitfalls, and challenges to collaboration and CBL largely by doing it: learning from experience. Collaboration and CBL do not release teachers from their instructional and pedagogical roles; rather, they place teachers and face-to-face instruction and practice in collaboration and CBL in classrooms, at the heart of effective practice and improvements here. Implications for teaching are suggested.     

Interaction and Collaboration Using an Intelligent Collaborative Learning Environment

The goal of this research is to design and prototype an intelligent collaborative learning environment. Within this environment, we study synchronous interaction among group members (students) working on a problem/project. Students use an Intelligent Collaborative Support System (ICSS) and a shared activity space: the Tulka Whiteboard. Two main interaction spaces have been implemented: a planning-communication space and a production space. Dialogue and negotiation are supported through the ICSS permitting exchange and evaluation of free-text communication messages that are initiated by students choosing sentence openers from a menu. Using the whiteboard, a virtual room is dedicated to a group of students who share documents, annotations on documents, drawing tools, and text tools. Each group is provided a dynamic assessment of their collaborative skills based on a communication skills model.     

CAMELOT: collaborative and multimedia environment for learners on teams

In the business-systems-design learning environment, there may be more than one solution to any given problem. For instance, the data model will be different depending on each learner’s perspective. Accordingly, group learning systems are very effective in this domain. We have developed a collaborative and multimedia environment for learners on teams (CAMELOT) using the ‘nominal group technique’ for group problem solving. In this paper, the basic framework of the collaborative learning system and the effectiveness of collaborative learning in designing the data model are described. By using CAMELOT, each learner learns how to analyse through case studies and how to collaborate with his or her group in problem solving. Learners come to a deeper understanding from using CAMELOT than from studying independently because they can reach better solutions through discussion, tips from other learners and examination of one another’s individual works.