David Curtis & Michael Lawson
School of Education
Flinders University of South Australia
Investigates the extent to which evidence of collaborative learning could be identified in students' textual interaction in an online learning environment. Analysis of students' contributions reveals that there is substantial evidence of collaboration, but there are differences between conventional face-to-face instances of collaborative learning and what occurs in asynchronous, networked environment.
Rupert Wegerif
Centre of Language and Communication
School of Education, The Open University, Milton Keynes.
The paper argues that the social dimension is important to effectivenes of asynchronous learning networks and needs to be taken into consideration in the design of courses. The study found that individual success or failure in the course depended upon the extent to which students were able to cross a threshold from feeling like outsiders to feeling like insiders.
Gerry Stahl
Center for Lifelong Learning & Design and Institute of Cognitive Science
University of Colorado, Boulder, USA
Reports the development of a web-based tool called WEBGuide to mediate and structure collaborative learning. The software uses an innovative mechanism to define a flexible system of perspectives on a shared knowledge construction space. The paper is a reflection on what is being learned about collaborative learning and about how software artifacts can mediate learning and shared cognition.
Chris Jones, Liverpool John Moores University
The paper argues the use of ethnographic techniques to understand group work as it occurs online. Examples are taken from the research to indicate how ethnographic techniques can be used to inform the design and use of groupware systems in education.
Arga Veerman, Utrecht (200) PhD thesis - 216 pages.
This is a thesis which aims to increase knowledge about the effective use of educational technology to support collaborative learning in academic education and to contribute to a better understanding of the role of argumentation as a mechanism for collaborative learning itself.
Erno Lehtinen and Marjaana Rahikainen - University of Turku
Kai Hakkarainen, Lasse Lipponen and Hanni Muukkonen - University of Helsinki
58 pages.
Cooperative learning research - motivational perspectives, social cohesion perspectives & developmental perspectives. Tools for collaboration, Effects of CSCL on learning and achievement, Review of good practices.
Curtis Jay Bonk
Donald J. Cunningham
Indiana University, Bloominton.
26 pages
The search was prompted by the dearth of theoretical grounding related to collaborative tools. While more useful components are being made, more knowledge is desperately needed about the relevance, prevalence and consequence of these innovative learning tools.
Curtis J. Bonk, Consortium Research Fellows Program
Robert A Wisher, US Army Research Institute
91 pages
This report is a resources guide for those concerned with using collaborative and learning environments - those that use the internet in a military training setting. It offers a broad examination of findings from the educational literature - the emergence of learning tools and constructivism, the role of the instructor in such approaches and the increasing importance of learner-centered approaches to instruction.
