Methodological reflections: designing and understanding computer-supported collaborative learning

Abstract

Learning involves more than just a small group of participants, which makes designing and managing collaborative learning processes in higher education a challenging task. As a result, emerging concerns in current research have pointed increasingly to teacher orchestrated learning processes in naturalistic learning settings. In line with this trend, collaboration scripts for instructional support have been presented as a potential trigger for collaboration. This article presents a qualitative methodology designed to understand collaboration in macro-scripted conditions. The study aimed to highlight the differences and similarities in how the 'ideal' script (the particular learning activities that the script is expected to produce) and the 'actual, realized' script (i.e. what really happens in the scripted learning setting) were reached by different groups. In practice, this kind of an analytic method will help teachers to support the knowledge construction of different groups.

Group learning activities and perceived learning outcomes

“…To overcome students' resistance to group work, they need to be supported in their group work and they need appropriate scheduling, such as sufficient time to work on group assignments without the stress of other simultaneous courses (Payne et al 2006). In addition, designing and managing GLAs is a challenging task in higher education (Hämäläinen 2012). Teachers consider the design of GLAs a complicated task that often does not lead to the desired learning outcomes, and encounter problems such as freeriding of students, and issues with assessment and grading (Gillies and Boyle 2010).…”

Analysis of knowledge construction during group space activities in a flipped learning course

“…This suggests that knowledge construction is enhanced by teacher facilitation. Comparatively, CSCL findings show that immediate teacher support improves collaboration (Hämäläinen, ), whereas flipped learning claims to stimulate students to seek teacher support (Sun et al, ). An implication for practice is to design teacher facilitation into activities while balancing collective group regulation and individual student regulation.…”

“…Facilitation needs to accommodate the learning ability of different groups while simultaneously avoiding under or over regulation that are both detrimental to group learning. Flexible learning outcomes can be used to accommodate different group collaboration levels (Hämäläinen, ). Although the benefits of facilitation are clear, it is difficult to adjust regulation during collaborative activities while navigating the complexity of a live classroom (Romero & Lambropoulos, ).…”

“…Too much or too little support can negatively impact group learning during collaborative activities. Moreover, “groups need different real‐time support” and activities should be designed with flexible learning outcomes (Hämäläinen, ).…”

Multiphase method for analysing online discussions

“…Several studies have analysed and assessed online discourse using quantitative or qualitative methods (e.g. Meier, Spada, & Rummel, ; Suthers, Dwyer, Medina, & Vatrapu, ; Hämäläinen, ). The aims of the quantitative approaches have typically been to study the impact of systematic variations of instructional support on learning.…”