Design guidelines to foster cooperation in digital environments

Abstract

A number of researchers argue that cooperative learning can promote greater productivity and more caring, supportive and committed relationships between students, active learning, critical thinking, the achievement of long-term learning objectives, conceptual understanding, long-term retention of information and high levels of student satisfaction. However, to obtain these potential advantages something more than forming and assigning them a common goal is needed: cooperation has to occur. This paper presents guidelines for designing group activities to foster cooperation by focusing on three elements of cooperative learning: (1) positive interdependence, (2) equal participation and (3) individual accountability in both individual and group learning scenarios. The authors also describe a software tool designed according to the model proposed in which some design guidelines have been implemented in order to support cooperative learning activities and allow the cooperative process to be monitored. The preliminary results show that the participants who have interacted with this software tool have obtained good cooperation scores and cooperative abilities have been fostered: participation, engagement and communication during learning activities.

Investigating Collaboration as a Process with Theory-driven Learning Analytics

“…Most researchers would agree that learners should be appropriately guided while collaborating to achieve the expected learning outcomes (Kirschner, Sweller, & Clark, 2006;Cukurova, Bennett, & Abrahams, 2018). However, the peculiarities of the collaboration process and what makes it work or fail are still being questioned by our research community (Dillenbourg, 1999;Collazos, Padilla, Pozzi, Guerrero, & Gutierrez, 2014). Kirschner et al (2018) argued that existing theories on the human cognitive architecture underlying learning processes, particularly cognitive load theory (CLT), can provide valuable insights into collaborative learning.…”

Carrot-and-Stick Procedure Without Carrots: Vicarious Punishment Prompts and System Transparency in E-Learning Groups

“…Therefore, a higher number of participants in general, as well as a higher number of participating groups should be tested in future studies. Third, according to Collazos et al (2014), collaboration does not happen automatically by building a team and letting it solve a task. Therefore, tasks were composed, supervised by pedagogical experts, as requiring collaboration but deliberately allowing success, also with less teammates if necessary in case of dropout.…”

Catálogo de lineamientos metodológicos para apoyar el proceso de aprendizaje colaborativo

“…Additionally, to these problems, are added that the development activity in a group with the use of a tool does not ensure a right collaboration, so it is necessary to have methodological elements that supporting the collaborative learning process. A way to look for a possible solution is initially to define an outline of cooperation which permits the leader of the activity to know when and how to intervene in order to improve the collaborative learning process, also, it is necessary to follow certain recommendation like the definition of the roles in the group of students (Collazos, Padilla-Zea, Pozzi, Guerrero, & Gutierrez, 2014). Katz and O'Donnell (1999) mentioned, one of the main problems the teacher must solve in this collaborative framework consists of identifying when to intervene and knowing what to say.…”

“…There is empirical evidence indicating the benefits of CSCL, among them are, facilitate task-oriented and reflective activity (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1996); (Hakkarainen, Lipponen, Järvelä, & Niemivirta, 1999), complex reasoning and levels of argumentation (Hoadley & Linn, 2000), progress in use of conceptual models (Bell, 1997), mathematical problem solving (Enyedy, Vahey, & Gifford, 1997), and the learning of complex scientific concepts (Roschelle, 1992) and among many other benefits. However, just putting a group of people around a task does not guarantee a real collaboration, so it is necessary to structure activities and tools convey cooperation among group members (Collazos, Padilla-Zea, Pozzi, Guerrero, & Gutierrez, 2014), on the other hand, on the part of the teacher, at the moment of designing and executing a collaborative activity, he might need to be a chair, host, lecturer, tutor, facilitator, mediator of team debates, mentor, observer, participant, co-learner, assistant, community organizer, or some combination of these (Roberts, 2005), in addition to dealing with equipment that often does not work well and dealing with their common problems (Graham & Misanchuk, 2005). This points to the fact that the skills required on the part of the teacher are more complex and diverse than those required for a face-to-face lecture, and exist the need to have elements that say what and how to support this collaborative learning process for improving the collaboration, the actions of teachers and obtain the benefits of the collaboration process (Felder & Brent, 2001).…”