PerspectivesX: A Proposed Tool to Scaffold Collaborative Learning Activities within MOOCs
PPerspectivesX: A Proposed Tool to ScaffoldCollaborative Learning Activities within MOOCs
Aneesha Bakharia
UQx, ITaLI, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Brisbane, Australia [email protected]
Abstract.
In this work-in-progress paper, we introduce the Perspec-tivesX tool which aims to scaffold collaborative learning activities withinMOOCs. The PerspectivesX tool has been designed to promote learnerknowledge construction and curation for a range of multi-perspectiveelaboration techniques (e.g., SWOT analysis and Six Thinking Hats).The PerspectivesX tool is designed to store learner submissions in asearchable knowledge base which is able to be persisted across coursere-runs and promotes the use of natural language processing techniquesto allow course moderators to provide scalable feedback. In this paper weoutline the design principles that structured collaborative learning toolsneed to adhere to, design a prototype tool (PerspectivesX) and evaluatewhether MOOC platform extension frameworks are able to support theimplementation of the tool.
Keywords: computer supported collaborative learning, massive openonline courses, edX Xblock, learning tools interoperability, knowledgeconstruction, critical thinking, idea generation
The tool predominantly used in MOOCs to foster collaborative learning is thediscussion forum. Research has shown that learners that actively contribute tothe course forum, are more likely to complete the course and achieve highergrades [3]. A high percentage of learners however, don’t engage in a course discus-sion forum with recent estimates of forum participation being between 5-10% ofparticipants [7]. There currently exists a wide gap between the unstructured col-laborative nature of forums and other MOOC instructional content (i.e., videos,quizzes and social polls). Tools that are able to scaffold collaborative learningactivities are required.Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) and the ideas behindproviding scripted learning activities has a long and rich research history. Un-fortunately, the theoretical underpinnings and practical manifestations of CSCLhave all but been forgotten in the era of the MOOC. In this paper, the Per-spectivesX tool is introduced. The PerspectivesX tool implements concepts fromCSCL scripting; and the Knowledge Community and Inquiry model (KCI) [11].KCI uses Web 2.0 tools to add a layer of collective knowledge building to scriptedlearning activities. a r X i v : . [ c s . C Y ] A p r The PerspectiveX Tool
The PerspectivesX tool is able to scaffold a range of multi-perspective elabora-tion activities. The tool is designed to promote active participation from learnersthat are either not participating in a discussion forum or that are passive forumparticipants (i.e., only reading forum posts). PerspectiveX encourages learners tomake a contribution and also makes it easy for learners to explore, review and cu-rate other learners submissions. In a PerspectivesX activity, learners must thinkabout a problem from an assigned or selected perspective and actively contributetheir ideas to a knowledge base that is available to all course participants. In-structors can enable an optional curation layer that requires learners to collateideas from fellow learners in order to complete the remaining perspectives of theactivity. Curation is an important feature of the tool. Curation is a 21st centurydigital literacy that is able to facilitate the development of learner search andevaluation strategies as well as promote critical thinking, problem solving, andparticipation in networked conversations [10].Example activities that the PerspectiveX tool is able to scaffold includeslearner submissions for design projects (i.e., knowledge construction), reflectivejournal entries (i.e., critical thinking) and multi-perspective elaboration activities(i.e., idea generation). The suggested approach will be able to support a rangeof idea generation and multi-perspective activities such Strengths, Weakness,Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis, Six Thinking Hats [4], Fishbowl[8] and SCAMPER [5].
The design principles that underpin the PerspectivesX tool are outlined below: – Support the design of structured knowledge construction, criticalthinking and multi-perspective elaboration activities
Instructors should be able to design activities that are able to collate struc-tured responses/submissions from learners. The types of responses requiredby learners should be flexible and allow learners to submit multiple free textresponses, media artifacts (e.g., images, infographics, slides, videos, etc) andlinks to external resources (e.g., website links). Within multi-perspectiveactivities the instructor should be able to design activities that allow thelearner to select a perspective or be randomly assigned to perspective. – Support opt-in and anonymous learner knowledge sharing
Learners should not be forced to share their submissions with other courseparticipants. Between 5-10% of learners are active discussion forum partic-ipants in a MOOC while a larger percentage of learners read forum posts(i.e. passive participation). Many learners may not feel confident makingtheir submissions available to other learners in a non-anonymous environ-ment. Submission should be mandatory in order to receive a participationgrade but the learner should be able to opt-out of sharing or choose to beanonymous.
Support instructor moderation
Course moderators need the ability to review and curate useful learner con-tributions. Curated content will help learners to focus their attention on rel-evant and important submissions [2] from other learners. The learner shouldbe able to view moderator highlighted content in an accessible and intuitivemanner. This will give moderators the ability to use learner submitted workas a starting point to trigger active participation in a discussion forum. – Support learner curation
The scripted collaborative activity should allow for the inclusion of a learnercuration sub-activity. As an illustrative example, the collaborative activitymight require the learner to submit a single section of a SWOT activity (e.g.,strengths) and then at a later stage, curate content from other course par-ticipants for the other sections (e.g., weaknesses, opportunities and threats). – Support temporal independence
Both paced and self-paced MOOCs should be able to include scaffoldedcollaborative learning activities. Learners should be able to contribute tothe activity at any time as well as review and curate the submissions ofother learners in a time independent manner. This is particularly importantfor self-paced MOOCs where learners are able to commence a course atany time and as a result would engage in collaborative learning activitiesat different times. Discussion forums within self-paced MOOCs are also lessactive, giving learners limited opportunities to either actively or passivelyparticipate in collaborative learning activities. – Support knowledge base growth across course re-runs
Learner contributions should collectively form a knowledge base which be-comes available across course re-runs offered in a variety of delivery modes(i.e., paced and self-paced). Initial course runs often have a higher number ofenrolled learners and more discussion forum activity as a result. Each MOOCre-run, begins with a refreshed discussion forum which results in communityknowledge between courses being lost. Retaining student contributions willfacilitate knowledge growth but also poses information retrieval problems.The interface used to display learner contributions will need to therefore in-clude intuitive navigation, free text and tag based (i.e., folksonomy) searchfunctionality. – Facilitate the delivery of customised scalable feedback
While various Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Deep Learning al-gorithms exist, the ability to accurately grade and provide feedback for freetext student submissions within MOOCs has not been realised. There arehowever techniques that can be used scale feedback provided by instruc-tors, moderators and tutors. These techniques rely on the similarity betweenlearner submissions and are able to cluster similar learner responses together.Topic modeling using the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) [1] algorithm isa promising document clustering technique that can be used to find commontopics in student submissions. Instructors, moderators and tutors can thenview a summary of the topics that exist in learner submissions and providefeedback. Various implementations of using clustering to provide feedback atcale have been discussed by [9]. The topic modeling summary provides anadditional way for learners to gain an overview of other student submissionsand navigate the community constructed knowledge base.
In this section, screen mockups for a prototype that adheres to all of design prin-ciples listed in the previous section are presented. Most tools that support peda-gogical scripting of CSCL employ a visual flowchart metaphor [6]. The flowchartmetaphor allows the designer to sequence key stages in the activity and specifywhether an individual or group will contribute to the activity. The flowchartmetaphor provides a high level overview of the activity, but the instructor is stillrequired to configure each stage of the activity. We take a declarative approachto the configuration of the activity, which both simplifies and reduces the stepsrequired to use the tool. The declarative approach is encapsulated in a simpleuser interface that allows the instructor to configure the activity.The activity creation interface (see Figure 1), allows instructors to choosea template and specify the activity configuration settings. The instructor canspecify how learners contribute to the perspectives in an activity (i.e., the learnercontributions section). Options are provided for the instructor to allow learnersto choose a perspective, contribute to all perspectives, or be randomly assigneda perspective. The instructor is able to enable a curation stage and configure theknowledge base.Central to the design of the PerspectivesX tool, is a structured template thatinstructors are able to create. It is envisaged that the tool will include standardtemplates for common activities such as Six Thinking Hats [4], SCAMPER [5]and Fish Bowl [8]. Instructors will also be able to create custom templates.As an example, a template can be created for a SWOT activity using a multi-perspective fieldset to include each text contribution field that is required (i.e.,Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats). The interface to create atemplate is shown in Figure 2a.An example learner submission user interface is displayed in Figure 2b. Thefields that a learner is required to complete is dependent upon the settings theinstructor has selected. In Figure 3, the learner has to select a perspective,enter their contribution and decide whether their contribution will be sharedwith other students. A knowledge base is displayed after a learner submits theirperspective. The learner is able to see their contribution as well as view otherstudent contributions that have similar or opposing views. Content curated bya moderator will be included.
The PerspectivesX tool can either be implemented using the Learning Tools In-teroperability (LTI) specification or as an XBlock for the Open edX platform.ig. 1: The instructor multi-perspective activity creation interface. (a) The multi-perspective template creationinterface. (b) The learner contribution interface.
Fig. 2: Additional screen designs from the PerspectivesX tool.TI tools can be built in any programming language, have their own user inter-face and are able to run on their own server. LTI tools are also able to integratewith a range of Learning Management Systems that implement the LTI spec-ification. XBlocks are extensions for the Open edX platform, must be built inthe Python programming language and adhere to the Open edX user interfacestandard. Both the LTI and XBlock implementation options are comparablein terms of creating a user interface for the instructor and learner. As LTI’shave the flexibility of being installed on a separate server, key features for theknowledge base will be easier to implement and scale. These features include thepersistence of knowledge base data across course-runs and content indexing forsearch. Implementing PerspectivesX as an LTI would provide more flexibility toreadily integrate with advance NLP and Deep Learning algorithms.
The PerspectivesX tool will be developed as an open source LTI tool from thedesign mockups proposed in this paper. Future research will focus on the evalu-ation of the PerspectivesX tool and extending the design principles to supportsynchronous collaborative activities.