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Collaborative learning requires a structured and open environment where individuals can actively exchange and elaborate their ideas to achieve a high-quality problem-solving solution. The use of concept map has been extensively implemented to facilitate idea generation and maintain shared focus during discussion. This study employs the Reciprocal Kit-Build (RKB) approach as a designed activity to support collaborative concept mapping. Though previous studies show the RKB is promising to promote productive discussion and achieve high-quality group products, they have not investigated how individual knowledge differences may potentially influence the effectiveness of collaboration. This study aims to identify the effect of group composition on learning effectiveness at the level of interaction between individual and group and at the level of the group as a whole. At the interaction level, we investigate the amount of knowledge transfer from shared and unshared individual knowledge to group solutions, while at the group level, the quality of collaborative maps is evaluated. Moreover, we explore the affective responses of learners during designated activities. A single group design is applied to illustrate the learning activities in a practical classroom settings where all students receive the same treatment. Our findings show that the transfer of individual shared and unshared knowledge is considerably high in all group conditions. Group composition does not significantly affect knowledge transfer and final group-outcome products; however, it may induce learners to experience different affective states. The results are essential for practitioners who intend to apply the RKB in their classroom to determine the appropriate group settings.

This study presents the design of a serious game for improving inferencing for foreign language students. The design of the game is grounded in research on reading theory, motivation and game design. The game contains trial-and-error activities in which students create conversations and then watch these conversations play out. Making mistakes results in students receiving feedback and being requested to try again. An evaluation of the system was also conducted, in which participants used both simple text and the game. Post-test scores for using the game were significantly higher than scores when reading the text. User reception to the system was also positive. These results suggest that serious games can be effective for enhancing inferencing when foreign language students face unknown words. Implications for reading comprehension and for incidental vocabulary learning are also discussed.

The advancement of technology has made it possible for automated feedback to be added to learning activities such as the construction of concept maps. The addition of feedback allows learners to acquire new knowledge instead of only focusing on reviewed knowledge. The cognitive processes for acquiring new knowledge and reviewing knowledge are different, so the benefits of concept maps in past research may not apply to the acquisition of new knowledge. However, how concept map construction varies across these two aspects has not been investigated. This research starts this investigation by researching how the positioning task affects new knowledge and reviewed knowledge. The position task is the act of deciding and managing the position of the elements of the concept map. In this paper, we study the differences in new knowledge and reviewed knowledge across two closed concept map interfaces by comparing test answers. One interface, Kit-build, includes the positioning task. The other interface, Airmap, does not include it. Results suggest that the interfaces only differ in retained reviewed knowledge, having similar performance in immediate new knowledge, immediate reviewed knowledge, and retained new knowledge. Results have potential implications for the general presence of the positioning task in learning interfaces.

Concept mapping is one of the instructional strategies implemented in collaborative learning to support discourse and learning. While prior studies have established its positive significance on the learning achievements and attitudes of students, they have also discovered that it can lead to students conducting less discussion on conceptual knowledge compared to procedural and team coordination. For instance, some inaccurate ideas are never challenged and can become ingrained. Designing a learning environment where individual knowledge is acknowledged and developed constructively is necessary to achieve similarity of individual knowledge after collaboration. This study applies the Reciprocal Kit Build (RKB) approach before collaborative concept mapping. The approach consists of three main phases: (1) individual map construction; (2) re-constructional map building; and (3) difference map discussion. Finally, each team will build a group map. Previous studies have shown that the visualization of similarities and differences during the third phase correlates with the improvement of concept map quality. The current paper presents our investigation on the effects of the first and second phases in terms of the final group products. We analyze the correlations between the similarity of individual knowledge represented in the first-phase maps, the comprehension of partner's representation during the second phase, and the changes of map scores. Our findings indicate that comprehension level is a stronger predictor than the similarity of individual knowledge for estimating score gain. The ways in which patterns of knowledge transfer from individual to group maps, which exhibit how the group products are built based on individual inputs, are also discussed. We illustrate that the number of shared and unshared links in the group solutions are proportionally distributed, and that the number of reconstructed links dominates the group solutions, rather than the non-reconstructed ones.