Andrea Kienle

Facilitating asynchronous discussions in learning communities: the impact of moderation strategies

A facilitator or moderator is often responsible for supporting processes and their progress in learning communities. In this article we present an approach for supporting moderators of asynchronous processes in learning communities. This approach follows the socio-technical perspective: it includes a theory-based development of moderator tasks and the technical features designed to support these tasks. Starting with relevant work in this area, we describe our approach to moderator support in the collaborative learning environment KOLUMBUS 2. In a qualitative study, a professional moderator facilitated the discussion processes of a group of 12 students based on KOLUMBUS 2. The moderator used different methods and varying levels of participation intervention. The study showed that different intervention strategies led to different levels of student participation and different successes in finding common results at the end of the discussions. Suggestions for the design of technical features are also made.

Concepts for usable patterns of groupware applications

Patterns, which are based on in-depth practical experience, can be instructing for the design of groupware applications as socio-technical systems. On the basis of a summary of the concept of patterns - as elaborated by the architect Christopher Alexander - its adoptions within computer science are retraced and relationships to the area of groupware are described. General principles for patterns within this domain are formulated and supported by examples from a wide range of experience with knowledge management systems. The analysis reveals that every pattern of a groupware application has to combine the description of social as well as technical structures, and that a single pattern can only be understood in the context of a pattern language. It also shows that such a language has to integrate patterns of socio-technical solutions with measures and procedures for introducing them, and that the language not only has to express one type of directed relationship between the patterns but a variety of different types which have to be deliberately assigned to the patterns.

Explicit referencing in learning chats: needs and acceptance

Chat is used in many learning scenarios and platforms for synchronous communication support. Up to now evaluation of chat communication requires time consuming manual coding and analysis of the chat transcript. In this paper we present a method that combines manual and automatic steps: (1) chat transcripts are manually referenced, i.e. for each chat contribution it is determined to which previous contribution it refers to. (2) the referenced chat transcripts are structurally analysed by calculating different measures. The results of this structure analysis help to evaluate the learning chat and indicate where further (manual) analyses might be helpful. In addition, the ability of chat to support a certain type of learning scenario can be evaluated. We then discuss how chat can be improved by providing functionality for explicit referencing to the participants during the chat. The evaluation of a university seminar in the winter term 2004/2005 that used the tool KOLUMBUS Chat shows that references are used to different extents and not continuously. We analyse the reasons for (not) using explicit references. The results provide hints about the technical and organisational design for learning chats using references.

The CSCL community in its first decade: development, continuity, connectivity

Ten years of international CSCL conferences (1995–2005) provide an occasion to reflect on the formation of the CSCL community. Based on quantitative analysis of conference proceedings, lists of participants and program committee members, and on qualitative study of policies and motives, this paper offers insights into the growth of the CSCL community in its first decade. The analysis focuses on participation at different levels of the community. In particular, focus is on the continuity of active and passive membership, the geographical distribution, and the international connectivity of the community. Contrary to expectations, only a relatively small number of people have participated continuously in the community. Concerning the geographical distribution, we found that the community is increasingly international in conference participation, authors, and program committees. The international connectivity of the community is also increasing, which can be seen in a growing number of citations and co-authorships across different countries. In order to interpret the results of our quantitative study, we conducted a qualitative, e-mail-based survey. In this survey we wanted to elaborate the policy of the conference organization, the reasons for international co-authorships and the motivations for participation in CSCL conferences. We contacted 84 members of different target groups (organizers, members of international co-authorships, and randomly selected participants on different levels of participation). The findings are suggestive for the further development of the CSCL community.

Integration of knowledge management and collaborative learning by technical supported communication processes

To date the development of technical systems to support learning either in schools and universities (CSCL-systems), or in companies (knowledge-management systems) have largely developed separately concurrent, with no or little mutual exchange of experience. The approach presented here seeks to combine the strengths of both lines of development in order that both benefits from each others advantages achieve advantages for each development. Detailed requirements engineering is presented regarding, three research fields: communication theory; learning processes; and a study in companies. The requirements collected led to a sophisticated concept of annotations where annotations serve as communicative contributions, and (segmented) material is used as context. The combination and distinction between communicative contributions, and the material itself is a suitable approach for integrating the advantages of CSCL-systems (communication support) and knowledge management systems (support of content storage). These requirements are combined in a software system, KOLUMBUS, presented with its key features. To gather experience with KOLUMBUS and to convey potential for further improvement, two case studies were conducted. The main results, advantages and further potentials derived from these two case studies are described in this paper. The paper concludes with design recommendations for similar technical systems, as well as organizational hints for CSCL-groups (in schools or universities as well as in companies).

Context-oriented communication and the design of computer-supported discursive learning

Computer-supported discursive learning (CSDL) systems for the support of asynchronous discursive learning need to fulfil specific socio-technical conditions. To understand these conditions, we employed design experiments combining aspects of communication theory, empirical findings, and continuous improvement of the investigated prototypes. Our theoretical perspective starts with a context-oriented model of communication which is—as a result of the experiments—extended by including the role of a third-party such as a facilitator. The theory-driven initial design requirements lead to the CSCL-prototype, KOLUMBUS, emphasizing the role of annotations. In KOLUMBUS, annotations can be immediately embedded in their context of learning material. Practical experience with the prototype in five cases reveals possibilities for implementing improvements and observing their impact. On this basis, we provide guidelines for the design of CSDL systems that focus on the support of asynchronous discursive learning.

Our way to Taipei: an analysis of the first ten years of the CSCL community

Ten years of international CSCL conferences give proper reason to reflect on the development of the CSCL community. Based on an analysis of conference proceedings, lists of participants and lists of program committee members, this paper provides insights about the development of the CSCL community in its first decade. A focus is set on the continuity of active and passive membership, the geographical distribution and the international connectivity of the community.Contrary to our expectations, only a relatively small number of people participate continuously in the community. Concerning the geographical distribution we found that the community is increasingly international in conference participation, authors, and program committees. The international connectivity of the community is also increasing which can be seen in a growing number of citations and co-authorships across different countries. These results can serve as a basis for further cultivation of the CSCL community.

Analyse und Unterstützung von Wissensprozessen als Voraussetzung für erfolgreiches Wissensmanagement

Mehr und Mehr setzt sich seit einiger Zeit in Forschung und Praxis des Wissensmanagements die Erkenntnis durch, dass Verzogerungen, uberflussige Wiederholungen, vermei dbare Ruckschritte und Abbruche in Ablaufen ein wesentliches Hemmnis fur den Erfolg von Wissensmanagementsystemen darstellen. So werden unterschiedliche Ansatze fur eine prozessorientierte Unterstutzung der Wissensarbeit entwickelt, von denen die wichtigsten aus dem deutschsprachigen Raum in diesem Band vertreten sind.

Principles for Cultivating Scientific Communities of Practice

Scientific communities can be seen as a specific type of Communities of Practice (CoP). In this paper we analyze scientific communities from the CoP point of view. We show how models and design principles from CoP can be interpreted and adapted for scientific communities. Taking the CSCL (Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning) community as an example, we instantiate the adapted design principles and trace the development of this community based on an analysis of its first decade of existence (1995–2005). This analysis includes an analysis of CSCL conference proceedings and an analysis of the lists of participants and program committee members of CSCL conferences.

KOLUMBUS: Context-Oriented Communication Support in a Collaborative Learning Environment

Computer supported collaborative learning occurs primarily by means of communication. Successful computer supported co-operation is only possible if communication among learners and between learners and teachers is appropriately supported. We describe communication on the basis of a context-oriented communication model that focuses on the dialogical communication and mediation of context. The model leads to an abstract identification of general communication tasks amongst collaborating learners and between them and their teachers. The resulting list of tasks can be generally used to derive requirements for the support of communication in collaborative learning environments. This is demonstrated with the features of the prototype system “KOLUMBUS”, which is used for experimental investigation in university courses. It realises the support of all identified communication tasks. The paper ends with a brief summary of results taken from experiences at a university seminar as part of a larger research work.