SECOL: a semantic environment based on social media to support organisational learning

Organisational learning (OL) helps companies to significantly improve their processes through the reuse of experiences, making knowledge accessible to the whole organisation. However, establishing learning in software development companies is not a trivial task, since it is an area in which processes and knowledge are usually hidden inside the employees’ mind. Generally, employees prefer to look for knowledge via Internet search engines rather than using the knowledge produced inside the company. Hence, we explored how better organising content produced within the company may minimise this problem. We investigated how a semantic collaborative environment, titled semantic collaborative environment for organisational learning (SECOL), based on social software, learning objects (LOs), and units of learning (UL) may assist to improve OL for software development companies. We defined an approach to generate LOs and UL from social software’s content used by companies. The environment was implemented based on ontologies in order to represent and organise acquired knowledge. Furthermore, an experiment was conducted using qualitative data analysis. The results indicated that the use of the environment is appropriate to improve OL in software development teams and the use of SECOL is efficient, particularly in order to acquire new knowledge, assisting the promotion of the use of organisational patterns and minimising repeated solutions.     

EVA: an interactive Web-based collaborative learning environment

In this paper, a Web-based learning environment developed within the project called Virtual Learning Spaces (EVA, in Spanish) is described. The environment is composed of knowledge, collaboration, consulting and experimentation spaces as a collection of agents and conventional software components working over the knowledge domains. All user interfaces are Web pages, generated dynamically by servlets, applets and agents. The article describes theoretical underpinnings, EVA's architecture, implementation of particular software modules and agents, and the application results.     

Concepts of an integrated project support environment

The need for an integrated approach to system development and maintenance has been apparent for sometime, and has been discussed in a series of conferences on software engineering. Although the phrase Integrated Project Support Environment (IPSE) is new, the concept is not. A UK company is developing such an environment, to be available commercially in early 1986.     

Recommender system in collaborative learning environment using an influence diagram

Giving useful recommendations to students to improve collaboration in a learning experience requires tracking and analyzing student team interactions, identifying the problems and the target student. Previously, we proposed an approach to track students and assess their collaboration, but it did not perform any decision analysis to choose a recommendation for the student. In this paper, we propose an influence diagram, which includes the observable variables relevant for assessing collaboration, and the variable representing whether the student collaborates or not. We have analyzed the influence diagram with two machine learning techniques: an attribute selector, indicating the most important attributes that the model uses to recommend, and a decision tree algorithm revealing four different scenarios of recommendation. These analyses provide two useful outputs: (a) an automatic recommender, which can warn of problematic circumstances, and (b) a pedagogical support system (decision tree) that provides a visual explanation of the recommendation suggested.     

A multimedia-enhanced collaborative learning environment

Abstract The proliferation of the Internet has brought about the notion of online virtual communities. One enabling technology for online communities is multiuser environments such as Multi-User Dimensions (MUDs) and Object-Oriented MUDS (MOOs). These text-based collaborative learning environments have recently have been integrated with the World Wide Web, thus harnessing the graphics and multimedia-rich environments available therein. Learners can directly experience, manipulate, and create objects in their rich multimedia form. MUDs and MOOs are augmented with synchronous collaboration technology that provided simultaneous control and viewing of shared documents and applications. In this paper, we describe a multimedia-enhanced MOO system called SpaceALIVE! and our experiences from a pilot project involving Singapore students who use SpaceALIVE! as a collaborative learning environment are reported.     

Measuring flow experience in an immersive virtual environment for collaborative learning

In contexts other than immersive virtual environments, theoretical and empirical work has identified flow experience as a major factor in learning and human–computer interaction. Flow is defined as a ‘holistic sensation that people feel when they act with total involvement’. We applied the concept of flow to modeling the experience of collaborative learning in an immersive virtual environment. The aims were, first, to psychometrically evaluate a measurement model of flow and, second, to test a structural model of flow. Pairs of small teams engaged in collaborative problem‐solving tasks while communicating by way of an immersive virtual environment. Flow was measured after each session, using Guo and Poole's inventory for measuring flow in human–computer interaction. In relation to the first aim, partial‐least‐squares analysis demonstrated strong evidence for the measurement model. In relation to the second aim, the structural model was supported: the effect of learning‐task characteristics on flow experience was mediated by its precursors, with extraneous variables held constant. It is reasoned that the experiment and resultant analysis of this work contributes to the development of measurement models and structural models of flow in immersive virtual environments.     

Autonomous collaborative environment for project-based learning

The importance of integrating different disciplines of information science and technology is growing for the realization of an information system which works robustly in the real world. Such a system should be achieved by integrating different disciplines, since it is difficult to cover all areas in information science and technology by only one person or group. In order to support collaboration, the autonomous collaborative environment for project- based learning was developed. The environment comprises the workshop “A Hundred Hour Workshop” and the community site “WS100H.NET”. Novel interdisciplinary technology, fusion of recognition and parallel computation was successfully developed whose collaboration process was autonomous.     

Experiences with CLARE: a computer-supported collaborative learning environment

Current collaborative learning systems focus on maximizing shared information. However, "meaningful learning" is not simply information sharing but also knowledge construction. CLARE is a computer-supported learning environment that facilitates meaningful learning through collaborative knowledge construction. It provides a semi-formal representation language called RESRA and an explicit process model called SECAI. Experimental evaluation through 300 hours of classroom usage indicates that CLARE does support meaningful learning. It also shows that a major bottleneck to computer-mediated knowledge construction is summarization. Lessons learned through the design and evaluation of CLARE provide new insights into both collaborative learning systems and collaborative learning theories.     

Enriching one-class collaborative filtering with content information from social media

In recent years, recommender systems have become popular to handle the information overload problem of social media websites. The most widely used Collaborative Filtering methods make recommendations by mining users’ rating history. However, users’ behaviors in social media are usually implicit, where no ratings are available. This is a One-Class Collaborative Filtering (OCCF) problem with only positive examples. How to distinguish the negative examples from missing data is important for OCCF. Existing OCCF methods tackle this by the statistical properties of users’ historical behavior; however, they ignored the rich content information in social media websites, which provide additional evidence for profiling users and items. In this paper, we propose to improve OCCF accuracy by exploiting the social media content information to find the potential negative examples from the missing user-item pairs. Specifically, we get a content topic feature for each user and item by probabilistic topic modeling and embed them into the Matrix Factorization model. Extensive experiments show that our algorithm can achieve better performance than the state-of-art methods.     

Regulative support for collaborative scientific inquiry learning

Abstract This study examined whether online tool support for regulation promotes student learning during collaborative inquiry in a computer simulation‐based learning environment. Sixty‐one students worked in small groups to conduct a scientific inquiry with fluid dynamics. Groups in the experimental condition received a support tool with regulatory guidelines; control groups were given a version of this tool from which these instructions were removed. Results showed facilitative effects for the fully specified support tool on learning outcomes and initial planning. Qualitative data elucidated how regulative guidelines enhanced learning and suggests ways to further improve regulative processes within collaborative inquiry learning settings.     

The impact of media on collaborative learning in virtual settings: The perspective of social construction

This study examines an alternative function of information sharing – social construction of meaning. Drawing on social construction, social interaction, and task closure theories, we explored the influence of both the media environment in which students are situated and the medium that group members choose to communicate with one another on the intricate relationships among breadth of information sharing, depth of information sharing, and performance of computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL). A total of 126 students participated in the experiment – including 63 students (15 groups of four students and one group of three students) in the control and experimental groups respectively. Our findings show that most of the proposed hypotheses are supported. Intersubjective interpretation underlies groups information sharing and plays a key role in student learning performance. Evidence shows that when facing a relatively complex task in multimedia environments, students who choose to utilize a medium lower in social presence (i.e., electronic information sharing) are more likely to achieve task closure than a medium higher in social presence (i.e., verbal information sharing). This in turn leads to higher learning performance. The implications for both theory and pedagogy are also discussed.     

CAD/CAM integrated system in collaborative development environment

For virtual enterprises to realize efficient operation in the 21st century, it is necessary to develop an environment that can support collaborative work of multi-disciplinary groups distributed in different places. CAD/CAM integrated system is an important subsystem in this environment. In this paper, the structure of CAD/CAM integrated system is presented, then, key technologies related to realize CAD/CAM integration are discussed in detail and finally main functions and an application case of CAD/CAM integrated system is introduced.     

基于网络环境下的协作学习教学设计研究

本文采用现代教学设计理念,对网络环境下协作学习的教学设计各环节进行了分析,然后利用行动研究方法对高师院校"计算机文化基础"课进行了教学实践,以期能为协作学习的实践应用提供具体的方法指导。     

Providing different types of group awareness information to guide collaborative learning

International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning - Cognitive group awareness tools are a means to guide collaborative learning activities by providing knowledge-related...     

Student perceptions of collaborative learning,social presence and satisfaction in a blended learning environment: Relationships and critical factors

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships of the students’ perceived levels of collaborative learning, social presence and overall satisfaction in a blended learning environment. This research studied the relationship of these three variables and identified critical factors related to them. The participants were 48 graduate students who took a blended-format course in health education and worked on a collaborative group project related to the development of a comprehensive HIV-AIDS prevention plan. Data was collected from the Student Perception Questionnaire and face-to-face interviews. The analysis of quantitative data indicated that student perceptions of collaborative learning have statistically positive relationships with perceptions of social presence and satisfaction. This means that students who perceived high levels of collaborative learning tended to be more satisfied with their distance course than those who perceived low levels of collaborative learning. Similarly, students with high perceptions of collaborative learning perceived high levels of social presence as well. Surprisingly, the relationship between social presence and overall satisfaction was positive but not statistically significant. Interview data revealed that (a) course structure, (b) emotional support, and (c) communication medium were critical factors associated with student perceptions of collaborative learning, social presence, and satisfaction. Explanations about findings and implications for instructional design are discussed in the conclusion.     

Computer support for knowledge construction in collaborative learning environments

Organisations increasingly use multidisciplinary teams to construct solutions for complex problems. Research has shown that multidisciplinary teams do not guarantee good problem solutions. Common ground is seen as vital to team performance. In this paper an ICT-tool to support complex problem solving is studied. A framework for knowledge construction inspired the design of computer support for knowledge construction. The basic support principle consisted of making individual perspectives explicit, which serves as a basis for negotiating common ground. This principle was embedded in a collaborative learning environment in three ways, which differed from each other in the extent to which users were coerced to adhere to the embedded support principles. Coercion, as expected, was correlated with negotiation of common ground; the more coercion, the more participants would negotiate the meaning of contributions to the ICT-tool, and the more common ground they would have. Self-report data suggested that Intermediate coercion resulted in the least common ground. This may have been caused by some disruption of group processes.     

Establishing an electronic collaborative learning environment in a university consortium: The CIRCLE project

The Consortium Interactive Research on Collaborative Learning Environments (or CIRCLE) project, was designed to examine (a) how the distance among remote universities can be bridged electronically; and (b) how this bridge can be used to develop truly collaborative learning with shared, distributed student and faculty responsibilities. Although the problem of “distance learning” based on the model of instructional television has been well-studied, the problem of collaborative distance learning, based on a design team model, poses new technological and psychological issues. The CIRCLE project was designed to develop a model of four-way instructional collaboration that places relatively small demands on existing university technological resources. Thus, this project focused on an examination of the human resources, the nature of video and audio interaction, and simple schemes for synchronous computer-based communication. The results of a number of collaborative trials indicated that interaction over high bandwidth video channels worked well with little training. However, the trials also indicated a need for better synchronous computer-based media to facilitate interactions. Further, the trials raised a number of technical, social, and task constraints that influence the effectiveness of the interactions.     

Design and evaluation of a collaborative learning environment

Collaboration becomes an essential competency in the current knowledge society. In this study, a collaborative learning environment was designed to facilitate students in group collaboration. Instructional support strategies of friendship and meaningful learning tasks were applied to promote collaboration. Scaffolding strategies such as writing progress reports and developing product versions were used to coordinate and monitor the collaborative learning environment. In addition, the online file sharing tool DriveHQ was used to facilitate collaboration. Four classes of students used the learning environment to complete their final project in pairs. Results showed friendship and meaningful learning tasks helped to promote individual accountability and positive interdependence, and the use of progress reports and product versions was useful for coordinating and monitoring the learning process. However, additional strategies might be needed for more effective collaboration to take place. Issues involved in this study are discussed.