Abstract: Although learning science in informal non-school environments has shown great promise in terms of increasing interest and engagement, few studies have systematically investigated and produced evidence of improved conceptual knowledge and cognitive skills. Furthermore, little is known about how digital technologies that are increasingly being used in these informal environments can enhance learning. Through a quasi-experimental design, this study compared four conditions for learning science in a science museum using augmented reality and knowledge-building scaffolds known to be successful in formal classrooms. Results indicated that students demonstrated greater cognitive gains when scaffolds were used. Through the use of digital augmentations, the study also provided information about how such technologies impact learning in informal environments.

Abstract: The purpose of the present paper is to examine the socio-cultural foundations of technology-mediated collaborative learning. Toward that end, we discuss the role of artifacts in knowledge-creating inquiry, relying on the theoretical ideas of Carl Bereiter, Merlin Donald, Pierre Rabardel, Keith Sawyer and L. S. Vygotsky. We argue that epistemic mediation triggers expanded inquiry and plays a crucial role in knowledge creation; such mediation involves using CSCL technologies to create epistemic artifacts for crystallizing cognitive processes, re-mediating subsequent activity, and building an evolving body of knowledge. Productive integration of CSCL technologies as instruments of learning and instruction is a developmental process: it requires iterative efforts across extended periods of time. Going through such a process of instrumental genesis requires transforming a cognitive-cultural operating system of activity, thus ‘reformatting’ the brain and the mind. Because of the required profound personal and social transformations, one sees that innovative knowledge-building practices emerge, socially, through extended expansive-learning cycles.

Abstract: Research related to online discussions frequently faces the problem of analyzing huge corpora. Natural Language Processing (NLP) technologies may allow automating this analysis. However, the state-of-the-art in machine learning and text mining approaches yields models that do not transfer well between corpora related to different topics. Also, segmenting is a necessary step, but frequently, trained models are very sensitive to the particulars of the segmentation that was used when the model was trained. Therefore, in prior published research on text classification in a CSCL context, the data was segmented by hand. We discuss work towards overcoming these challenges. We present a framework for developing coding schemes optimized for automatic segmentation and context-independent coding that builds on this segmentation. The key idea is to extract the semantic and syntactic features of each single word by using the techniques of part-of-speech tagging and named-entity recognition before the raw data can be segmented and classified. Our results show that the coding on the micro-argumentation dimension can be fully automated. Finally, we discuss how fully automated analysis can enable context-sensitive support for collaborative learning.

Abstract: Some recent proposals on CSCL scripts have suggested that one key factor for their effectiveness is the ability of the teacher to adapt the scripts to the students and to the specific teaching and learning situations. In this context, this paper presents a multiple-case study dealing with the relationship between the assistance given by the teacher during the collaborative process and the forms of collaborative work developed by groups of university students in two natural settings, in which two different types of macro-script are used. Specifically, the study sets itself three objectives: (1) to identify patterns of teacher assistance to the collaborative work developed by the groups; (2) to identify the forms of collaborative work developed by the groups; and (3) to explore the relationships between the patterns of teacher assistance, the forms of collaborative work and the level of performance achieved by the groups. The results show two different patterns of teacher assistance in the two settings. These patterns differ on four dimensions: the aspect of the task on which the teacher was offering assistance, the moment in which the assistance was offered, the recipient of the assistance, and whether the assistance offered by the teacher was spontaneous or requested by the students. These patterns are related with the forms of collaborative work developed by the groups (how the group is organized and how the written work is produced) within the structural framework imposed, in each setting, by the macro-script.

Abstract: This paper provides a detailed analysis of the work of the teacher during collaborative-learning activities. Whilst the importance of the teacher for the success of collaborative learning has frequently been recognized in the CSCL literature, there is nevertheless a curious absence of detailed studies that describe how the teacher intervenes in pupils’ collaborative-learning activities, which may be a reflection of the ambivalent status of teachers within a field that has tried to transfer authority from teachers to pupils. Through a close analysis of different types of teacher interventions into pupils working in pairs with a storyboarding tool, this paper argues, firstly, that concerns of classroom management and pedagogy are typically intertwined and, secondly, that although there may be tensions between the perspectives of teachers and pupils these do not take the form of antagonistic struggles. The paper concludes that it may be time to renew our interest in the work of teachers in the analysis of collaborative-learning activities.

Abstract: This study explored how young children interact with their peers in the computer area of a public kindergarten classroom. Children’s social interaction, as defined in this study, is the action of giving and taking information that results in children’s knowledge construction and cognitive development that can be accomplished through peer-to-peer interactions. This kind of social interaction is referred to as “Cognitively Effective Social Interaction (CESI)” in this paper. Patterns of young children’s social interaction with peers in the computer area of this classroom were discussed. Two teachers and 28 children in a full-day kindergarten classroom were observed and interviewed. The patterns of young children’s social interaction that occurred in the computer area were described as parallel play, verbal conflicts, sociable interaction, knowledge construction through positive and negative processes, and non-verbal communication.

Abstract: Digital video technologies offer a variety of functions for supporting collaborative learning in classrooms. Yet, for novice learners, such as school students, positive learning outcomes also depend centrally on effective social interactions. We present empirical evidence for the positive effects of instructive guidance on performance and on learning of students who use web-based video tools during a short collaborative-design task in their history lesson. In an experiment with 16-year old learners (N = 148) working on a history topic, we compared two contrasting types of guidance for student teams’ collaboration processes (social-interaction-related vs. cognitive-task-related guidance). We also compared two types of advanced video tools. Both types of guidance and tools were aimed at supporting students’ active, meaningful learning and critical analysis of a historical newsreel. Results indicated that social-interaction-related guidance was more effective in terms of learning outcomes (e.g., the students’ history skills) than cognitive-task-related guidance. The different tools did not yield consistent results. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Abstract: Computer-Supported Collaborative Blended Learning (CSCBL) scripts are complex learning situations in which formal and informal activities conducted at different spatial locations are coordinated and integrated into one unique learning setting through the use of technology. We define a conceptual model identifying four factors to be considered when addressing the design of these CSCBL scripts and of the technological system for supporting their enactment: the space, the pedagogical method, the participants and the history (4SPPIces factors). This paper presents and evaluates a CSCBL script designed according to the 4SPPIces factors. The script is proposed for extending the learning of geographic fieldwork in a geography course at a high school. In this script, students reflect about the urbanism and the socio-geographic characteristics of a Barcelona neighborhood. The script blends individual and collaborative activities supported by mobile and computer-based technologies conducted in the classroom, home and city. The script is evaluated in a case study involving thirty-four students and two teachers. The case study reports: (1) the CSCBL script designed with the teachers, considering the 4SPPIces factors and the associated technological environment and (2) the results of enacting the script in the actual learning context and analysing whether it fulfils the targeted learning objectives. The results from this case study show the impact of considering the 4SPPIces factors to enhance a real practice providing new learning and motivational benefits. The CSCBL script presented is an example that can encourage other practitioners and researchers to adopt the 4SPPices factors in similar educational situations.

Abstract: This study aimed to investigate the relationships between college students’ behavioral and cognitive engagements while performing an online collective information searching (CIS) activity. The activity aimed to assist the students in utilizing a social bookmarking application to exploit the Internet in a collective manner. A group of 101 college students in Taiwan participated in the research procedure, and performed the CIS activity to glean quality online resources for the given search assignment. The actions taken and annotations and comments made during the activity were recorded as log data, and used as the main resource for later analyses of behavioral and cognitive engagements in the activity. Through cluster analysis of the students’ contributions to the CIS activity, four categories of behavioral engagement were identified, namely “Hitchhiker,” “Individualist,” “Active” and “Commentator,” to represent the students’ investments in performing the activity. Furthermore, to explore the students’ cognitive engagement in the activity, content analysis of the verbal transcripts of their annotations and comments was conducted based on the refined coding framework of the present study. The results of further cluster analysis revealed that the students’ cognitive engagement levels could be identified as “Deep” and “Surface.” Through comparison of their behavioral and cognitive engagements, the findings revealed that the students with “Active” behavioral engagement tended to exhibit a “Deep” level of cognitive engagement. It is therefore suggested that both behavioral and cognitive engagements are critical to participatory learning with practice in CIS activities.

Abstract: Researchers have long recognized class size as affecting students’ performance in face-to-face contexts. However, few studies have examined the effects of class size on exact reading and writing loads in online graduate-level courses. This mixed-methods study examined relationships among class size, note reading, note writing, and collaborative discourse by analyzing tracking logs from 25 graduate-level online courses (25 instructors and 341 students) and interviews with 10 instructors and 12 graduate students. The quantitative and qualitative data analyses were designed to complement each other. The findings from this study point to class size as a major factor affecting note reading and writing loads in online graduate-level courses. Class size was found positively correlated with total number of notes students and instructors read and wrote, but negatively correlated with the percentage of notes students read, their note size and note grade level score. In larger classes, participants were more likely to experience information overload and students were more selective in reading notes. The data also suggest that the overload effects of large classes can be minimized by dividing students into small groups for discussion purposes. Interviewees felt that the use of small groups in large classes benefited their collaborative discussions. Findings suggested 13 to 15 as an optimal class size. The paper concludes with a list of pedagogical recommendations and suggestions for new multimedia software features to enhance collaborative learning in online classes.

Abstract: This article presents a model whose primary concern and design rationale is to offer users (teachers) with basic ICT skills an intuitive, easy, and flexible way of editing scripts. The proposal is based on relating an end-user representation as a table and a machine model as a tree. The table-tree model introduces structural expressiveness and semantics that are limited but straightforward and intuitive. This approach is less expressive and introduces less semantics than approaches based on workflow representations and complex meta-models. However, it may be enhanced to represent complex features such as by-intention grouping mechanisms, constraint checking or configuration of enactment frameworks. A usability test suggests that the model/interface is easy to use and that teachers avail themselves of the flexibility available to model scripts according to their perspectives.

Abstract: Learning, cognition and knowledge building can be analyzed at multiple units of analysis. For instance, analyses of CSCL are often conducted on one of three levels: individual learning, small-group cognition or community knowledge building. One can identify and analyze important processes taking place at each of these levels of description. This tripartite distinction is grounded in the practices of CSCL. With its focus on collaborative learning, CSCL naturally emphasizes providing support for dyads and small groups working together. In practice, CSCL small-group activities are often orchestrated within a classroom context by providing some initial time for individual activities (such as background reading or homework drill), followed by the small-group work, and then culminating in whole-class sharing of group findings. Thus, the typical classroom practices tend to create three distinguishable levels of activity. Often, the teacher sees the group work as a warm-up or stimulation and preparation for the whole-class discussion, facilitated directly by the teacher. Conversely, the importance of testing individual performance and valuing individual learning positions the group work as a training ground for the individual participants, who are then assessed on their own, outside of the collaborative context. In both of these ways, group cognition tends to be treated as secondary to either individual or community goals. By contrast, the role of intersubjective learning is foundational in Vygotsky (1930/1978), the seminal theoretical source for CSCL. Regardless of which is taken as primary, the three planes are actualized in CSCL practice, and the matter of their relative roles and connections becomes subsequently problematic for CSCL theory (Dillenbourg et al. 1996; Rogoff 1995; Stahl 2006). While these different units, levels, dimensions or planes are intrinsically intertwined, research efforts generally focus on only one of them and current analytic methodologies are designed for only one. Furthermore, there is little theoretical understanding of how the different planes are connected. To the extent that researchers discuss the connections among levels, they rely upon commonsensical notions of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (2012) 7:467–473 DOI 10.1007/s11412-012-9159-7

Abstract: The aim of this case study was to explore health-education students’ personal and collaborative meaning making activities during an online science philosophy course in the higher-education context. Through applying the dialogical perspective for learning, the focus was on studying how different contextual resources were used in building understanding within the philosophy of science and what kind of understanding the students constructed and reflected through these resources. The study focused especially on exploring how the students’ life experiences and fellow students served as resources in their meaning making activities. The results showed that prior work and discipline-related knowledge and experiences provided the students with resources for understanding the philosophical texts by applying, conceptualizing, or critically evaluating the philosophical knowledge presented in the texts. In their discursive activities, the students used fellow students as resources in elaborating the theoretical conceptualizations further, or they were engaged in sharing their similar work or discipline-related experiences and conceptions. These different resources offered tools for understanding, conceptualizing, and critically evaluating both the philosophical themes studied and the practices of one’s own work and those of the scientific community.

Abstract: The purpose of this empirical study is to analyze and map the content of the International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning since its inception in 2006. Co-word analysis is the general approach that is used. In this approach, patterns of co-occurrence of pairs of items (words or phrases) identify relationships among ideas. Distances based on co-occurrence frequencies measure the strength of these relationships. Hierarchical clustering and multidimensional scaling are the two complementary exploratory methods relying on these distances that are used to analyze and map the data. Some interesting findings of the work include a map of the key topics covered in the journal and a set of complementary techniques for investigating more specific questions.

Abstract: The growing importance of medical imaging in everyday diagnostic practices poses challenges for medical education. While the emergence of novel imaging technologies offers new opportunities, many pedagogical questions remain. In the present study, we explore the use of a new tool, a virtual microscope, for the instruction and the collaborative learning of pathology. Fifteen pairs of medical students were asked to solve diagnostic tasks in a virtual microscopy learning environment. The students’ collaborative efforts were analysed on the basis of approximately 20 hours of video recordings. Our analyses show how students use the technology as a mediating tool to organize, manipulate and construct a shared visual field, and later, shared understanding of the problem and solutions. Organization of the visual field is done through multimodal referential practices: gestures, three dimensional manipulation of the image and paced inspection of the specimen. Furthermore, we analyse and describe how the aforementioned practices coincide with students’ medical reasoning in this particular learning context. The analysis of medical students’ diagnostic work illustrates the collaborative potential of the virtual microscopy environment and how such interactive tools render the traditional distinction between collaborating around or through computers irrelevant, as even face to face collaboration becomes enacted through technology. Finally, we argue that as technologies develop, understanding the technical side of image production, or any representation, becomes an integral part of the interpretative process. How this knowledge is communicated to the students may play a substantive role in how students learn to interpret medical images.

Abstract: The age of simple objects like well-designed artifacts, minds confined inside of skulls, and cultures cloistered in the tacit background has been left in the fading past according to current socio-cultural theory. We are now enmeshed in dialectical processes of social enactment, whereby designed objects continue to evolve well after they enter into the structuring of our thought patterns. Biological human evolution has long since transformed itself into cultural evolution, proceeding at an exponential pace. Along the way, thought overcame the limits of individual minds to expand with the power of discourses, inscriptions, digital memories, computational devices, technological infrastructures, computer-supported group cognition, and virtual communities. Both human cognition and its mediation by technological artifacts morph from fixed nouns into process verbs, like “cognizing mediating”—where human cognition and technological media shape each other in ways we are just beginning to conceptualize. The owl of Minerva flies only at night, according to Hegel’ s( 1807/1967) metaphor: theory—which is one’s time grasped in concepts—lags behind the continuous unfolding of practice. As today’s viral software successes rapidly outstrip our design theories, we must try to understand the ways in which new generations of users adopt and adapt their digital tools, thereby defining and redefining their conceptual, social, and pragmatic ties to their worlds. Hegel theorized the dialectic between subject and object, proposing that the identity of the human subject is formed when a subject subjects an object to goal-oriented design (Stahl 2006, p. 333f), creating an artifact within the effort to forge intersubjectivity and its spin-off, the individual’s self. Vygotsky (1930/1978) recognized the role of double stimulation in mediated cognizing: that the subject’s access to an object is mediated by tools such as hammers, names, and physical-symbolic inscriptions, so that in higher-order human cognizing we are stimulated by both an intentional object and a cognizing-mediating tool. It is this mediation of cognition by artifacts and via other people that opens the zone of proximal development, allowing the individual mind to first exceed and then later extend its limits. Engestrom’ s( 1987) concept of expansive learning added the cultural dimensions from Marx’social theory to Vygotsky’s

Abstract: Existing Educational Modeling Languages (EML), and especially the IMS LD specification, does not appropriately address data flow among Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) activities. Several solutions proposed in the literature, have tackled the important dimensions of data flow automation or the consistency of design, but they have not adequately covered the perspective of reusing scripts. Current data and tools binding specifications do not establish the dependencies between this setting and the structural design of the collaborative data flow situations. This preclude a complete design particularization and raise the issue of reusing data flow designs, which is especially important in the case of complex and adaptive real-world collaborative learning scenarios. This paper presents a case study in which the LeadFlow4LD approach, an IMS LD interoperable solution, is analyzed with respect to the reusability of data flow designs. Besides, the case study is performed using a real-world complex CSCL script in order to illustrate the adaptive characteristics that could be taken into account. Findings show limitations of the current approaches concerning reuse and structural design particularization of the data flow. Additionally an alternative solution based on abstract workflow templates that is briefly outlined in this paper.

Abstract: This paper presents an innovative description and an initial implementation of the “Students Team Achievement Divisions (STAD)” collaboration method (Slavin, 1978), in the form of an online adaptive collaborative design-pattern that has been constructed taking into account adaptation techniques, within the context of an open-source learning design-based environments such as the LAMS system (Dalziel, 2003). This method is described with special reference to the learning of essential aspects of an Information System. The innovative description of the aforementioned collaborative method within the LAMS system is based on the fact that: (a) the tasks assigned to the groups consist of investigation of real world scenarios, and not merely the study of learning material as is usually proposed, (b) adaptive techniques are integrated with the method and (c) for the design of the collaborative learning activity, an intuitive learning design tool such as the LAMS system is used. A research study was also conducted aiming the development of an empirical model to allow the implementation of the aforementioned adaptive STAD collaborative method within the context of an IT work place, namely; the Legal Council of the Hellenic State. In fact, the data gathered from this study were used to build the initial learning profile of the user –that is needed for the implementation of Phase 2 of the previously mentioned adaptive STAD collaborative method- so that to be able to provide him/her personalized training, monitoring, scaffolding and evaluation.

Abstract: While design research can be useful for designing effective technology integrations within complex social settings, it currently fails to provide concrete methodological guidelines for gathering and organizing information about the research context, or for determining how such analyses ought to guide the iterative design and innovation process. A case is described, in which the author explores one way that researchers might go about systematizing the analysis of contextual influences within a design research study. It borrows a method from engineering called “Cognitive Work Analysis” (CWA) (Vicente 1999), to methodically study the impact of political, organizational, team, psychological, and physical factors within an initial teacher education setting. The study illustrates how a modified CWA was helpful in making contextual information more explicit and organized. Important information in the form of human factors “constraints” were identified through the CWA, providing valuable details about context that might otherwise be overlooked during design research cycles or within the reporting process.

Abstract: A community of practice is a group of people who share common concerns, problems or passions for a domain and who deepen their knowledge and expertise through interaction and collaboration on an ongoing basis. More and more people, groups and organizations are looking to develop Internet-mediated communities of practice in order to realize specific goals on informal learning and professional development. Harnessing the perceived values of communities across educational sector requires well-designed settings and procedures to achieve a sustainable level of functionality, communality, collaboration and knowledge sharing. Because current research supports the notion that there is not a systematic theory or a blueprint for design of online communities, this work aims to define a basic typology of various critical elements for successful and sustainable Internet-mediated communities of practice, via a meta-analysis and critical synthesis of related literature.

Abstract: In this article we present a framework for the integration of external and independent software components into IMS-LD (Learning Design) based courses that cater for adaptivity. Our framework comprises a design specification and an implementation of adaptations in CSCL (computer-supported collaborative learning) oriented and standards based architecture. The architecture allows combining existing research on explicit representations of collaborative learning processes (i.e. learning designs) with the availability of existing and tested collaborative learning tools (e.g. a forum in a virtual learning environment (VLE), an agent, a service or even a software component that provides a specific functionality). The architecture allows controlling the learning tools either by a human or a pedagogical agent and thus enables adaptive interventions to the flow of the learning activity. A mediator component is the key element in the proposed architecture. To prove the soundness of the architecture and the flexibility of its implementation example scenarios are illustrated. In these scenarios IMS-LD based modeling and Coppercore engine are used to implement adaptations by setting IMS-LD properties according to input from an external Moodle forum tool. The whole process is mediated by an integration component provided to the teacher as a Moodle resource. Finally, we highlight what would be important issues toward integrating the adaptation pattern capabilities in IMS-LD compliant tools for collaborative learning design.

Abstract: Portable and interactive technologies are changing the nature of collaborative learning practices and open up new possibilities for Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL). Now, activities occurring in and beyond the classroom can be combined and integrated leading to a new type of complex collaborative blended learning scenarios. However, to organize and structure these scenarios is challenging and represent a workload for practitioners, which hinder the adoption of these technology-enhanced practices. As an approach to alleviate this workload, this paper proposes a proof of concept of a technological solution to overcome the limitations detected in an analysis of an actual collaborative blended learning experiment carried out in a previous study. The solution consists on a Unit of Learning suitable to be instantiated with IMS Learning Design and complemented by a Generic Service Integration system. This chapter also discusses to which extent the proposed solution covers the limitations detected in the previous study and how useful could be for reducing the orchestration effort in future experiences.

Abstract: The Editors are pleased to announce that the International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning was again highly ranked by ISI’s annual “Impact Factor” report released several days ago. IjCSCL ranks #11 of the 203 journals ranked by ISI in the field of Education and Educational Research and it ranks #6 of the 83 journals ranked by ISI in the field of Information Science & Library Science. IjCSCL is the #1 journal published by Springer and ranked by ISI in each of these categories. IjCSCL has an impact factor of 2.243 for last year and a 5-year impact factor of 3.000. The impact factor for 2011 is the number of citations of the journal’s 2009 and 2010 articles cited during 2011 in ISI-ranked journals, divided by the number of the journal’s 2009 and 2010 articles. That is, articles printed in ijCSCL during 2009 or 2010 were cited in ISIranked journals on average 21⁄4 times during 2011. The ISI impact factor (published annually by the Institute for Scientific Information at Thomson Reuters) is widely considered the most important ranking of academic journals. In many universities, it is considered in evaluating authors for tenure and promotion. IjCSCL supports an international research community. It receives submissions from 53 countries. About 7,000 universities and research institutions around the world subscribe to it, making its content available to millions of people through the Springer website. We also maintain the ijCSCL.org website with the full text of all articles freely available to the whole world; there have been two million hits to this site so far. Several thousand articles are downloaded every month from the Springer.com and ijCSCL.org websites. This indicates that ijCSCL continues to be read and cited by many researchers in the active computer-supported collaborative learning Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (2012) 7:341–345 DOI 10.1007/s11412-012-9155-y

Abstract: The IMS Learning Design specification is a widely known language that allows modelling of, amongst other learning designs, collaboration scripts in e-learning. Yet, it has been criticized for a number of shortcomings and specifically its lack of support for comprehensive adaptation features. We propose concrete extensions to the specification, which address a wide range of problems and omissions. The most important areas of modifications and amendments include: explicit representation of groups and corresponding collaboration contexts, as well as of artefacts as results of joint work; flexible integration of communication and collaboration services; a revamped script organization and sequencing model; a previously missing run-time model, with support for event- and exception- handling. The above are complemented by a wide range of adaptive interventions that can affect the script’s progress at run-time, tailor it to changing circumstances, and support learners. Last but not least, sophisticated scenarios are made possible through support for non-traditional collaboration script elements: the possibility to represent human involvement in adaptation decisions, ‘transactional’ action processing, loops and branches for controlling action execution, and the declaration of re-usable action sequences and complex expressions. Further to the proposed changes, examples are provided that highlight the novel possibilities afforded by these changes for advanced collaboration scripts.

Abstract: Teachers often use flow design patterns of particular learning strategies in order to define the type of the learning and supportive tasks, their duration, their orchestration as well as the use of learning objects, tool and services needed to support the execution of these tasks. It is quite easy for teachers (even novice learning designers) to create a learning script by applying a flow design pattern. However, they often need to mix and match learning strategies in order to create customized learning scripts that are more appropriate to the learners’ preferences and the learning context in general. This task is even more challenging when such adaptations need to be made on-the-fly, i.e. during the learning process and in response to the learner’ online behavior. The aim of this paper is to discuss how the learners’ interaction data that is collected during an online learning process and analyzed using interaction analysis indicators can be used by a teacher to alter the learning script on the fly. It is shown that with the aid of a learning interaction analysis tool, which is called CoSyLMSAnalytics, a teacher can modify a learning script that is based on a typical Think-Pair-Share strategy in order to offer scaffolds to the learners during the learning process. Also, an example will be shown that will depict how a learning designer can create a variation of a learning scenario that is based on a typical Think-Pair-Share strategy by using the tool referred above.

Abstract: Communication is an integral part of any Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) research approach. Furthermore the issues of Adaptation and Interaction Analysis have been intensively researched during the past years, under the scope of web-based educational approaches. Both research fields seem to share similar or complementary techniques, aims and outcomes. This chapter attempts to examine at what extend these two fields are complementary to one another or whether they can converge (or diverge) in the future, focusing on Computer Mediated Communication tools, especially Asynchronous Discussion Platforms. The existing work on applying IA methods in communication-based CSCL approaches is examined and correlated with the main constituents of the research on adaptive systems. Issues related to flexibility, adaptability and interoperability are also discussed upon, in an attempt to distinguish the future trends of the IA research field and its relation to Adaptation, outlining their conceptual similarities and examining the possibilities of developmental interconnections among the two fields.

Abstract: The aim of the current studies in this field of research is the development of intelligent and interactive services and systems which will provide users with personalised support. In order to develop these systems and fulfil the intended requirements it is necessary to identify which factors define an intelligent and interactive system - not only from the scientific and developing perspective but mainly from the perspective of the prospective users. The interaction and the perceived as well as the projected qualities of an object will determine the personal benefit and impact on behaviour which a system will have as the user adjusts and interacts with this system based on the mental representations formed before and while interacting with the system. In order to assure that the expectations of the user are met by the technology and thereby facilitate and reinforce the mental representations and models regarding the functioning, meaning and personal link with the technology the behaviour and personality of the user need to be carefully profiled.

Abstract: This chapter presents the design of an intelligent agent based system that aims to support teachers in supervising and evaluating learners and activities of lessons in the Learning Activity Management System (LAMS). A monitoring agent has been designed to collect and aggregate information from LAMS database, related to the participation of learners in lesson’s activities, at time intervals which indicates the teacher through a scheduler agent. A user notification agent diagnoses conflicts in the learning and collaborative processes and issues alert and awareness messages to the teacher, learners and groups of learners via rules that are based on a teacher defined participation model. The system, based on this model, generates also evaluation reports of learners and activities of the lesson, in order to assist the teacher to intervene effectively in the course of a lesson.

Abstract: Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) are rich in goal-oriented activities and collaborative and social interactions, both essential for learning the game and progressing. In this chapter we employ a theoretical framework for linking learning and collaborative learning principles with MMOGs and investigate, through an exploratory and qualitative approach, features of the tasks, groups, and player interactions that may support the emergence of collaborative interactions and learning. The critical role of both the design of the environment and of the community of players is highlighted and it is concluded that their balanced inter-connection is critical for the emergence of effective collaborative interactions. Implications on further research are also discussed.