Abstract: The goal of this research is to provide an overview of CSCL methodological practices. CSCL is a vibrant interdisciplinary research field where several different theoretical and methodological traditions converge. Given the diversity of theoretical and methodological traditions that co-exist in CSCL, it is important to document the kinds and range of methodological practices and examine how they are related to the diverse theoretical perspectives in the field. In the current study, we examined CSCL research methodology in terms of (1) research designs, (2) research settings, (3) data sources, and (4) analysis methods. We then examined how these dimensions are related to the theoretical frameworks of the research. A content analysis was carried out based on empirical CSCL studies published in seven leading journals of the field during 2005–2009. The analysis identified the dominant CSCL research practices. We found that the modal CSCL study used descriptive designs that were carried out in classroom settings, typically collected questionnaires and/or analyzed the data quantitatively. CSCL research methods, however, were also quite diverse and eclectic, as researchers used range of data collection and analysis practices. Methodological practices were influenced by the theoretical framework of the research. A cluster analysis examined how these practices co-varied and revealed four distinctive method-theory clusters. Remaining methodological challenges of the field are discussed along with suggestions to move the field toward meaningful synthesis.

Abstract: Chat conversations and other types of online communication environments are widely used within CSCL educational scenarios. However, there is a lack of theoretical and methodological background for the analysis of collaboration. Manual assessing of non-moderated chat discussions is difficult and time-consuming, having as a consequence that learning scenarios have not been widely adopted, neither in formal education nor in informal learning contexts. An analysis method of collaboration and individual participation is needed. Moreover, computer-support tools for the analysis and assessment of these conversations are required. In this paper, we start from the “polyphonic framework” as a theoretical foundation suitable for the analysis of textual and even gestural interactions within collaborative groups. This framework exploits the notions of dialogism, inter-animation and polyphony for assessing interactions between participants. The basics of the polyphonic framework are discussed and a systematic presentation of the polyphonic analysis method is included. Then, we present the PolyCAFe system, which provides tools that support the polyphonic analysis of chat conversations and online discussion forums of small groups of learners. Natural Language Processing (NLP) is used in order to identify topics, semantic similarities and links between utterances. The detected links are then used to build a graph of utterances, which forms the central element for the polyphonic analysis and for providing automatic feedback and support to both tutors and learners. Social Network Analysis is used for computing quantitative measures for the interactions between participants. Two evaluation experiments have been undertaken with PolyCAFe. Learners find the system useful and efficient. In addition to these advantages, tutors reflecting on the conversation can provide quicker manual feedback.

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to design and examine a computer-supported knowledge-building environment and to investigate both collective knowledge-building dynamics and individual learning in the context of a tertiary education course in mainland China. The participants were 102 students in four intact Year-one tertiary business classes. Two classes experienced a knowledge-building environment (CKB) and the other two were taught using a regular project-based approach (RPBL). Data were obtained from interactions in the forum, writing quality, group-learning portfolios, and surveys. Quantitative analyses indicated that the knowledge-building groups outperformed the comparison groups on academic literacy assessed in terms of conceptual understanding and explanation, and obtained higher scores on beliefs about collaboration. Within-group analyses indicated that the students’ engagement in Knowledge Forum was a significant predictor of their academic literacy. Qualitative contrastive analyses of high- and low-performance groups identified different patterns of conceptual, metacognitive and social processes, and showed that student groups engaging in more collective and meta-discourse discourse moves performed better on individual scores in academic literacy. The implications of examining both collaborative dynamics and individual learning and designing computer-supported knowledge building for tertiary students are discussed.

Abstract: This paper presents two studies that examine emergent leadership in children’s collaborative learning groups. Building on research that finds that leadership moves are distributed among group members during learning activities, we examined whether there were patterns in the distribution of moves, resulting in different types of emergent leaders in groups. Study one examines individual groups working with a teacher, on the same task either with paper or multi-touch tables. Study two examines groups of students in a multi-touch classroom. Results from study one indicated that the leadership was distributed among the students; the distributions aligned with classifications of intellectual leadership moves and organizational leadership moves for about half of the groups. There were no differences in emergent leadership between the multi-touch and paper conditions. These results were explored in more detail in a multi-touch classroom study, exploring emergent leadership in 22 groups of students across six classes. Again, leadership was distributed among group members, and specific roles of intellectual and organizational leader, taken on by two different students, could be identified in half of the groups. These results suggest that attention should be paid to how students are engaging in collaborative learning tasks to ensure all students participate in the intellectual as well as organizational demands of the task. Additionally, the pattern of the distribution of roles suggests that care should be taken to specify behaviors if the role of leader is assigned to collaborative groups.

Abstract: We describe preliminary applications of network analysis techniques to eye-tracking data collected during a collaborative learning activity. This paper makes three contributions: first, we visualize collaborative eye-tracking data as networks, where the nodes of the graph represent fixations and edges represent saccades. We found that those representations can serve as starting points for formulating research questions and hypotheses about collaborative processes. Second, network metrics can be computed to interpret the properties of the graph and find proxies for the quality of students’ collaboration. We found that different characteristics of our graphs correlated with different aspects of students’ collaboration (for instance, the extent to which students reached consensus was associated with the average size of the strongly connected components of the graphs). Third, we used those characteristics to predict the quality of students’ collaboration by feeding those features into a machine-learning algorithm. We found that among the eight dimensions of collaboration that we considered, we were able to roughly predict (using a median-split) students’ quality of collaboration with an accuracy between ~85 and 100 %. We conclude by discussing implications for developing “collaboration-sensing” tools, and comment on implementing this approach for formal learning environments.

Abstract: This present study endeavors to discover the scholarly communication structure in the CSCL knowledge domain. To explore the intellectual structure of contemporary literature of CSCL research from 2006 to 2013, over a thousand research papers indexed in the leading journal publications and conference proceedings were retrieved from WOS. Accordingly, this paper adopted a series of methods to analyze these research articles from macro to micro level, including document co-citation analysis (DCA), exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and social network analysis (SNA). As a result, a total of 7,552 and 2,180 co-citation ties were obtained from 403 to 66 source papers, respectively. In addition, six intellectual subfields within the CSCL literature were extracted, namely: (1) representation, discourse & pattern, (2) factors influencing CSCL, (3) intervention and comparison, (4) critical reasoning, (5) process of social construction, and (6) design and modeling of CSCL. Central documents and publications within contemporary CSCL research were identified and presented in the undirected co-citation networks from both macro and micro perspectives. Furthermore, the dissemination of underlying subfields and pivotal documents serving as a boundary-spanning role were discussed. This is the very first attempt to integrate the bibliographical method, statistical analysis, and visualization techniques in relation to contemporary CSCL research. Further discussion and research directions for future CSCL study are provided.

Abstract: This article explores conceptual and methodological challenges in researching sustainable computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) within authentic educational settings. It argues that to investigate the sustainability of CSCL in such settings, we need to understand how new innovations become enculturated as part of educational communities and the shared repertoires and practices of learners and teachers. The potential for Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) as a relational, dialectical framework for researching collaborative learning is examined. The article argues that, although CHAT is increasingly being used for researching educational settings, it is often employed only descriptively or as a set of guiding principles and the dialectical method, which focuses on emergent contradictions and tensions, is not always fully explored. An integrated conceptual and methodological CHAT framework is proposed for understanding the complex interrelations between discourse, actions and community and as a result how new technological innovations and knowledge creation practices can be appropriated and sustained. This is illustrated through the analytical processes undertaken in a recent empirical study of undergraduates working on an online collaborative research project. The article concludes by arguing that the dialectical method at the heart of CHAT is both unifying and problematizing and could allow us to develop a richer, more integrated and explanatory picture of sustainable CSCL activities.

Abstract: Empirical studies have proven the effectiveness of the knowledge and information awareness approach of Engelmann and colleagues for improving collaboration and collaborative problem-solving performance of spatially distributed group members. This approach informs group members about both their collaborators’ knowledge structures and their collaborators’ information. In the current study, we investigated whether this implicit approach reduces undesirable effects of mutual trust and mutual skepticism. Trust is an important influencing factor with regard to behavior and performance of groups. High mutual trust can have a negative impact on group effectiveness because it reduces mutual control and, as a result, the detection of the others’ mistakes. In an empirical study, 20 triads collaborating with the knowledge and information awareness approach were compared with 20 triads collaborating without this approach. The members of a triad were spatially distributed and participated in a computer-supported collaboration. The results demonstrated that the availability of the knowledge and information awareness approach overrides the negative impact of too much mutual trust and counteracts the development of mutual skepticism. This study contributes to further clarifying the impact of trust on effectiveness and efficiency of virtual groups depending upon different situational contexts.

Abstract: In order to understand how technical artifacts are attuned to, interacted with, and shaped in various and varied classrooms, it is necessary to construct detailed accounts of the use of particular artifacts in particular classrooms. This paper presents a descriptive account of how a shared workspace was brought into use by a student pair in a face-to-face planning task. A micro-developmental perspective was adopted to describe how the pair established a purposeful connection with this unfamiliar artifact over a relatively short time frame. This appropriation was examined against the background of their regular planning practice. We describe how situational resources present in the classroom—norms, practices and artifacts—frame possible action, and how these possibilities are enacted by the pair. Analysis shows that the association of norms and practices with the technical artifact lead to a contradiction that surfaced as resistance experienced from the artifact. This resistance played an important part in the appropriation process of the pair. It signaled tension in the activity, triggered reflection on the interaction with the artifact, and had a coordinative function. The absence of resistance was equally important. It allowed the pair to transpose or depart from regular procedure without reflection.

Abstract: This year’s International Conference of the Learning Sciences (www.isls.org/icls2014) will feature the theme of “practices encompassing the range of contexts and processes in which people learn.” In this first issue of 2014 of ijCSCL, we present four explorations of that theme. We begin with a consideration of Activity Theory as a framework for analyzing the systemic contexts of CSCL practices. This is followed by detailed qualitative and quantitative analyses of knowledge building across the age spectrum of schooling: from primary school (4th and 5th grade) to tertiary school (first year college). Finally, the collaborative construction of knowledge is studied at the global level of adults posting to Wikipedia. In preparation for last year’s CSCL conference, a series of editorial introductions to ijCSCL raised the issue of the interrelationships among individual, small-group, and community learning (Stahl 2012, 2013a, b). It is interesting to read the articles in this new issue as in part investigations of such interrelationships. The notion that “interactional resources” such as geometric objects in mathematical problem solving can be seen to be bridging levels of analysis was recently elaborated in (Oner 2013; Stahl 2013c, esp. Ch. 6; Zemel and Koschmann 2013). This notion of resources plays a theoretical role similar to that of artifacts in Activity Theory and appears, for instance, in the scaffolds of epistemic games, the notes of knowledge-building forums and the pivotal-knowledge postings of Wikipedia in the papers of the current issue. Intern. J. Comput.-Support. Collab. Learn. (2014) 9:1–6 DOI 10.1007/s11412-014-9189-4

Abstract: Communities of Learning (CoL) are an innovative methodological tool to stimulate knowledge creation and diffusion within organizations. However, past research has largely overlooked how participants’ hierarchical positions influence their behavior within CoL. We address this shortcoming and provide empirical evidence on 25 CoL for a global training program, analyzing user statistics from 249 staff members. Our results indicate that participants’ level of activity and performance are significantly influenced by their hierarchical position. We also discover a duality among participants holding low hierarchical positions. The implications of these results and future research avenues are discussed.

Abstract: Theoretical models of collaborative learning through online discussions presuppose that students generally attend to others’ posts. However, a succession of studies over the last decade has shown this assumption to be unwarranted. Instead, research indicates that learners attend to others’ posts in diverse and particular ways—an activity we have conceptualized as online “listening.” In this study, we take an important step forward in developing a robust theory of online listening by examining the relationship between how learners “listen” (access existing posts) and “speak” (contribute posts) in online discussions. Ten variables indexing four dimensions of students’ listening (breadth, depth, temporal contiguity and revisitation) and five variables indexing three dimensions of students’ speaking (discursiveness, depth of content and reflectivity) were calculated for 31 students participating in 6 week-long online discussions as part of an undergraduate educational psychology course. Multi-level mixed-model linear regressions indicated that responsiveness of students’ posts was positively predicted by how often they revisited previously read peer posts, and negatively related to a greater number of posts in the discussion overall. The depth of posts’ contents was predicted by the percentage of posts viewed that students actually read (as opposed to scanned). An exploratory follow-up analysis indicated that these listening-speaking relationships manifest differently over time for distinct subsets of learners (e.g., a decrease in variable pairs versus corresponding fluctuations around stable levels). Put together, results suggest that when students take the time to read and re-read their peers’ posts there are related benefits in the quality of the posts they contribute.

Abstract: The dialogical perspective provides an important theoretical framework for CSCL. The strain of this approach most influential in CSCL arose in the throes of the Russian revolution. In the social and intellectual ferment of revolutionary Russia—during the decades preceding and following 1917—groups turned to the theories of Marx (1867/1976) not only to leave behind feudal relationships, but also to leap over the capitalist stage of economic development. While the official soviet philosophy developed a dogmatic version of Marxism-Leninism and even Stalinism, theoreticians like Vygotsky (1930/1978) and Bakhtin (1986) remained true to the social impetus of Marx’ thought. They provided social, developmental, dialectical approaches to psychology (Vygotsky, 1934/1986) and linguistics (Voloshinov, 1973) that complemented Marx’ revolutionary philosophy, history, economics and politics. In particular, these two authors—and the circles of researchers around them—pioneered dialogical outlooks that overcame the ideology of individualism, which is associated with capitalist culture. Philosophies propounded in the early days of the bourgeois era, like reflections by Descartes (1633/1999) of an isolated mind or the social contract among individual citizens postulated by Rousseau (1762) led to views in which (i) minds are possessions of individuals and (ii) communications are exchanges between individuals. Vygotsky countered the first of these views (i) by demonstrating how the higher psychological faculties of human cognition develop historically and evolve culturally through discourse and labor by groups of people; the mind is not innate to isolated individuals, but is an evolving composite of skills and practices developed through social interaction. Bakhtin opposed the second view (ii) by analyzing the dialogical character of communication; ideas are not first produced in self-contained individual minds, but emerge from multi-vocal discourse, whether in conversation, in self-talk or in novels. This is a developmental outlook, which views the nature of things as the result of their history— propounded by philosophers like Hegel, Nietzsche, Wittgenstein and Heidegger as well as scientists like Darwin, Marx and Freud. For both of the Russian researchers, language—a thoroughly social product and essential mediator of cognition—is the focal phenomenon. According to Vygotsky, thinking is a mediated and internalized form of self-talk, a dialog with oneself. In Bakhtin's writings, the cultural and historical forms of language speak through us: The voices of countless social groups are sedimented in the words, phrases and genres of our speech. For an individual to “have an idea” is for meanings which have previously been incorporated in a community's language to be brought together in a multi-vocal and dialogical interaction. Although an adult can formulate new meaning, develop an idea or elaborate an argument as an individual achievement, such abilities are originally learned in small groups or dyads. Even as an individual act, the

Abstract: The papers in this issue present innovative approaches to analyzing the roles of individuals in small-group collaborations supported by computer technologies. In reading these articles, you may find it interesting to consider the ways in which their methods conceptualize the relationship of collaborative group learning to the roles of its individual participants. Taken together, these studies envision and explore a space of possible strategies for analyzing the multi-level phenomena of collaborative learning, sometimes coding utterances of individuals and at other times characterizing group trajectories. They each push the boundaries of CSCL research in various ways. Although they can be read as primarily proposing analytic procedures, they also contribute to theory and technology. Perhaps highlighting their nuanced stances on the issue of unit-of-analysis in probing learning data can help to reveal their contributions to the advance of CSCL as a vision and as a field. It is often difficult to determine where overall progress is being made in CSCL research and practice. Statistical indicators in comparative reviews tend to be overwhelmed by the diversity of theories and methodologies applied in research and by the variety of pedagogies adopted in practice. In both researcher and teacher communities, there are new participants entering with training in traditional disciplines as well as long-time participants still working within old paradigms. Folk theories derived from common sense linger on and may obscure the visibility of innovations in scientific theory, methodology or pedagogy. Folk theories of minds and learning still influence classroom practice. According to Bruner (1996) and Bereiter (2002), teachers’ pedagogy is often deeply affected by everyday intuitive Intern. J. Comput.-Support. Collab. Learn. (2014) 9:365–370 DOI 10.1007/s11412-014-9204-9

Abstract: This article discusses the relevance of large-scale mass collaboration for computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) research, adhering to a theoretical perspective that views collective knowledge both as substance and as participatory activity. In an empirical study using the German Wikipedia as a data source, we explored collective knowledge as manifested in the structure of artifacts that were created through the collaborative activity of authors with different levels of contribution experience. Wikipedia’s interconnected articles were considered at the macro level as a network and analyzed using a network analysis approach. The focus of this investigation was the relation between the authors’ experience and their contribution to two types of articles: central pivotal articles within the artifact network of a single knowledge domain and boundary-crossing pivotal articles within the artifact network of two adjacent knowledge domains. Both types of pivotal articles were identified by measuring the network position of artifacts based on network analysis indices of topological centrality. The results showed that authors with specialized contribution experience in one domain predominantly contributed to central pivotal articles within that domain. Authors with generalized contribution experience in two domains predominantly contributed to boundary-crossing pivotal articles between the knowledge domains. Moreover, article experience (i.e., the number of articles in both domains an author had contributed to) was positively related to the contribution to both types of pivotal articles, regardless of whether an author had specialized or generalized domain experience. We discuss the implications of our findings for future studies in the field of CSCL.

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to contribute to a better understanding of learning in computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environments by investigating the co-occurrence of uncertainty expressions and expressions of learning in a graduate course in which students collaborated in classroom computer-mediated discussions. Results showed that uncertainty expressions appeared related to the kinds of intellectual work engaged by students in online discussion, co-occurring with learning in systematic ways. For example, direct expressions of uncertainty were likely to co-occur with learning categories associated with presenting a new idea and with applications of an idea whereas indirect expressions were more strongly associated with elaborating on a new idea. These findings suggest that the ability to deal with and express uncertainty appropriately may be related to learning as it takes place in online environments. We contend that the role of uncertainty in learning is currently undervalued, and that educators and researchers may benefit from considering how uncertainty can be productive for learning in CSCL environments.

Abstract: The advent of social networking tools allows teachers to create online networks and share information. While some virtual networks have a formal structure and defined boundaries, many do not. These unstructured virtual networks are difficult to study because they lack defined boundaries and a formal structure governing leadership roles and the transfer of information. The purpose of the study was to explore the relationship between how a member participates in a virtual blog network and the role of that member in the network. Unlike previous studies that use behavioral or structural characteristics of an individual’s network to infer social roles, this study utilized cluster analysis to combine behavior and structural information in role detection. Quantitative methods from social network analysis were used to compare the network structure of individual bloggers both across and within groups. The results indicate that how an individual participates in the network has an influence not only on their current role in the network, but also in how and how quickly their role in the community changes.

Abstract: Only a few studies have dealt with the challenge of bridging the linguistic gap between the dialogic realm and the talk of disengaged students. Bridging this gap is particularly relevant to the CSCL community since one of its utmost aims is to promote the dialogic. This study aims to articulate how to harness the CSCL design and affordances to enhance dialogic pedagogy with disengaged students. Using temporal analysis of philosophical discussions for children, we focus on three disengaged 8th grade students participating in successive discussions mediated by a CSCL tool (Argunaut), and follow the way they talk with their peers in the classroom. The study shows the gradual emergence of the dialogic among those students. We describe the transition of their talk moves, from initially reproducing the way they talk to adopting dialogical norms. To explain this we conceptualize the notion of carriers of discursive norms and discuss its transformative role in dialogue. The dialogic transition was made possible by the pedagogical design and the design of the CSCL tools. These affordances allowed the students change the meaning of the conversational building blocks of space, silence, addressee, and the ethics of talk.

Abstract: Teachers and students face many challenges in shifting from traditional classroom cultures to enacting the Knowledge-Building Communities model (KBC model) supported by the CSCL environment, Knowledge Forum (Bereiter, 2002; Bereiter & Scardamalia, 1993; Scardamalia, 2002; Scardamalia & Bereiter, 2006). Enacting the model involves socializing students into knowledge work, similar to disciplinary communities. A useful construct in the field of the Learning Sciences for understanding knowledge work is “epistemic games” (Collins & Ferguson, 1993; Morrison & Collins 1995; Perkins, 1997). We propose that a powerful means for supporting classroom enactments of the KBC model entails conceptualizing Knowledge Forum as a collective space for playing multi-player epistemic games. Participation in knowledge-building communities is then scaffolded through learning the moves of such games. We have designed scaffolding tools that highlight particular knowledge-building moves for practice and reflection as a means of supporting students and teachers in coming to understand how to collectively work together toward the progressive improvement of ideas. In order to examine our design theories in practice, we present research on Ideas First, a design-based research program involving enactments of the KBC model in Singaporean primary science classrooms (Bielaczyc & Ow, 2007, 2010; Ow & Bielaczyc, 2007; 2008).