Computer-supported collaborative learning

The roots of collaborative epistemology as related to CSCL can be found in Vygotsky's social learning theory. Of particular importance to CSCL is the theory's notion of internalization, or the idea that knowledge is developed by one's interaction with one's surrounding culture and society. The second key element is what Vygotsky called the Zone of proximal development. This refers to a range of tasks that can be too difficult for a learner to master by themselves but is made possible with the assistance of a more skilled individual or teacher.[8] These ideas feed into a notion central to CSCL: knowledge building is achieved through interaction with others.

Cooperative learning, though different in some ways from collaborative learning, also contributes to the success of teams in CSCL environments. The distinction can be stated as: cooperative learning focuses on the effects of group interaction on individual learning whereas collaborative learning is more concerned with the cognitive processes at the group unit of analysis such as shared meaning making and the joint problem space. The five elements for effective cooperative groups identified by the work of Johnson and Johnson are positive interdependence, individual accountability, promotive interaction, social skills, and group processing.[9] Because of the inherent relationship between cooperation and collaboration, understanding what encourages successful cooperation is essential to CSCL research.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Marlene Scardamalia and Carl Bereiter wrote seminal articles leading to the development of key CSCL concepts: knowledge-building communities and knowledge-building discourse, intentional learning, and expert processes. Their work led to an early collaboration-enabling technology known as the Computer Supported Intentional Learning Environment (CSILE).[10] Characteristically for CSCL, their theories were integrated with the design, deployment, and study of the CSCL technology. CSILE later became Knowledge Forum, which is the most widely used CSCL technology worldwide to date.

Other learning theories that provide a foundation for CSCL include distributed cognition, problem-based learning, group cognition, cognitive apprenticeship, and situated learning. Each of these learning theories focuses on the social aspect of learning and knowledge building, and recognizes that learning and knowledge building involve inter-personal activities including conversation, argument, and negotiation.[4]

Only in the last 15 to 20 years have researchers begun to explore the extent to which computer technology could enhance the collaborative learning process. While researchers, in general, have relied on learning theories developed without consideration of computer-support, some have suggested that the field needs to have a theory tailored and refined for the unique challenges that confront those trying to understand the complex interplay of technology and collaborative learning.[11]

Collaboration theory, suggested as a system of analysis for CSCL by Gerry Stahl in 2002–2006, postulates that knowledge is constructed in social interactions such as discourse. The theory suggests that learning is not a matter of accepting fixed facts, but is the dynamic, on-going, and evolving result of complex interactions primarily taking place within communities of people. It also emphasizes that collaborative learning is a process of constructing meaning and that meaning creation most often takes place and can be observed at the group unit of analysis.[12] The goal of collaboration theory is to develop an understanding of how meaning is collaboratively constructed, preserved, and re-learned through the media of language and artifacts in group interaction. There are four crucial themes in collaboration theory: collaborative knowledge building (which is seen as a more concrete term than "learning"); group and personal perspectives intertwining to create group understanding; mediation by artifacts (or the use of resources which learners can share or imprint meaning on); and interaction analysis using captured examples that can be analyzed as proof that the knowledge building occurred.[11]

Collaboration theory proposes that technology in support of CSCL should provide new types of media that foster the building of collaborative knowing; facilitate the comparison of knowledge built by different types and sizes of groups; and help collaborative groups with the act of negotiating the knowledge they are building. Further, these technologies and designs should strive to remove the teacher as the bottleneck in the communication process to the facilitator of student collaboration. In other words, the teacher should not have to act as the conduit for communication between students or as the avenue by which information is dispensed, but should structure the problem-solving tasks. Finally, collaboration theory-influenced technologies will strive to increase the quantity and quality of learning moments via computer-simulated situations.[11]

Stahl extended his proposals about collaboration theory during the next decade with his research on group cognition . In his book on "Group Cognition",[13] he provided a number of case studies of prototypes of collaboration technology, as well as a sample in-depth interaction analysis and several essays on theoretical issues related to re-conceptualizing cognition at the small-group unit of analysis. He then launched the Virtual Math Teams project at the Math Forum, which conducted more than 10 years of studies of students exploring mathematical topics collaboratively online. "Studying VMT"[14] documented many issues of design, analysis and theory related to this project. The VMT later focused on supporting dynamic geometry by integrating a multi-user version of GeoGebra. All aspects of this phase of the VMT project were described in "Translating Euclid."[15] Then, "Constructing Dynamic Triangles Together"[16] provided a detailed analysis of how a group of four girls learned about dynamic geometry by enacting a series of group practices during an eight-session longitudinal case study. Finally, "Theoretical Investigations: Philosophical Foundations of Group Cognition"[17] collected important articles on the theory of collaborative learning from the CSCL journal and from Stahl's publications. The VMT project generated and analyzed data at the small-group unit of analysis, to substantiate and refine the theory of group cognition and to offer a model of design-based CSCL research.

It has a number of implications for instructional designers, developers, and teachers.

• First, it revealed what technological features or functions were particularly important and useful to students in the context of writing, and how a CSCL system could be adapted for use for different subject areas, which have specific implications for instructional designers or developers to consider when designing CSCL tools.
• Second, this study also suggested the important role of a teacher in designing the scaffolds, scaffolding the collaborative learning process, and making CSCL a success. Third, it is important that a meaningful, real-world task is designed for CSCL in order to engage students in authentic learning activities of knowledge construction.[33]
• Third, cooperative work in the classroom, using as a tool based technology devices "one to one " where the teacher has a program of classroom management, allows not only the enhancement of teamwork where each member takes responsibilities involving the group, but also a personalized and individualized instruction, adapting to the rhythms of the students, and allowing to achieve the targets set in which has been proposed for them individualized Work Plan.

The advent of computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) as an instructional strategy for second language acquisition can be traced back to the 1990s. During that time, the internet was growing rapidly, which was one of the key factors that facilitated the process.[35] At the time, the first wikis (such as WikiWikiWeb) were still undergoing early development,[36] but the use of other tools such as electronic discussion groups allowed for equal participation amongst peers, particularly benefiting those who would normally not participate otherwise during face-to-face interactions.[35]

During the establishment of wikis in the 2000s, global research began to emerge regarding their effectiveness in promoting second language acquisition. Some of this research focused on more specific areas such as systemic-functional linguistics, humanistic education, experiental learning, and psycholinguistics. For example, in 2009 Yu-Ching Chen performed a study to determine the overall effectiveness of wikis in an English as a second language class in Taiwan.[37] Another example is a 2009 study by Greg Kessler in which pre-service, non-native English speaker teachers in a Mexican university were given the task to collaborate on a wiki, which served as the final product for one of their courses. In this study, emphasis was placed on the level of grammatical accuracy achieved by the students throughout the course of the task.[38]

Due to the continual development of technology, other educational tools aside from wikis are being implemented and studied to determine their potential in scaffolding second language acquisition. According to Mark Warschauer (2010), among these are blogs, automated writing evaluation systems, and open-source netbooks.[39] Ex situ of the classroom, the development of other recent online tools such as Livemocha (2007) have facilitated language acquisition via member-to-member interactions,[40] demonstrating firsthand the impact the advancement of technology has made towards meeting the varying needs of language learners.

Studies in the field of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) have shown that computers provide material and valuable feedback for language learners and that computers can be a positive tool for both individual and collaborative language learning. CALL programs offer the potential for interactions between the language learners and the computer.[41] Additionally, students' autonomous language learning and self-assessment can be made widely available through the web.[42] In CSCL, the computer is not only seen as a potential language tutor by providing assessment for students' responses,[43] but also as a tool to give language learners the opportunity to learn from the computer and also via collaboration with other language learners. Juan[44] focuses on new models and systems that perform efficient evaluation of student activity in online-based education. Their findings indicate that CSCL environments organized by teachers are useful for students to develop their language skills. Additionally, CSCL increases students' confidence and encourages them to maintain active learning, reducing the passive reliance on teachers' feedback. Using CSCL as a tool in the second language learning classroom has also shown to reduce learner anxiety.[45]

Various case studies and projects had been conducted in order to measure the effectiveness and perception of CSCL in a language learning classroom. After a collaborative internet-based project, language learners indicated that their confidence in using the language had increased and that they felt more motivated to learn and use the target language. After analyzing student questionnaires, discussion board entries, final project reports, and student journals, Dooly[46] suggests that during computer supported collaborative language learning, students have an increased awareness of different aspects of the target language and pay increased attention to their own language learning process. Since the participants of her project were language teacher trainees, she adds that they felt prepared and willing to incorporate online interaction in their own teaching in the future.

Culture may be thought of as composed of "beliefs, norms, assumptions, knowledge, values, or sets of practice that are shared and form a system".[47] Learning communities focused in whole or part on second language acquisition may often be distinctly multicultural in composition, and as the cultural background of individual learners affects their collaborative norms and practices, this can significantly impact their ability to learn in a CSCL environment.[48]

CSCL environments are generally valued for the potential to promote collaboration in cross-cultural learning communities. Based on social constructivist views of learning,[49] many CSCL environments fundamentally emphasize learning as the co-construction of knowledge through the computer-mediated interaction of multivoiced community members. Computer-mediation of the learning process has been found to afford consideration of alternative viewpoints in multicultural/multilingual learning communities.[50] When compared to traditional face-to-face environments, computer-mediated learning environments have been shown to result in more equal levels of participation for ESL students in courses with native English speakers.[51] Language barriers for non-native speakers tend to detract from equal participation in general,[52] and this can be alleviated to some extent through the use of technologies which support asynchronous modes of written communication.[53][54]

Online learning environments however tend to reflect the cultural, epistemological, and pedagogical goals and assumptions of their designers.[55] In computer-supported collaborative learning environments, there is evidence that cultural background may impact learner motivation, attitude towards learning and e-learning, learning preference (style), computer usage, learning behavior and strategies, academic achievement, communication, participation, knowledge transfer, sharing and collaborative learning.[48] Studies variously comparing Asian, American and Danish and Finnish learners have suggested that learners from different cultures exhibit different interaction patterns with their peers and teachers in online.[56] A number of studies have shown that difference in Eastern and Western educational cultures, for instance, which are found in traditional environments are also present in online environments.[57][58] Zhang[59] has described Eastern education as more group-based, teacher-dominated, centrally organized, and examination-oriented than Western approaches. Students who have learned to learn in an Eastern context emphasizing teacher authority and standardized examinations may perform differently in a CSCL environment characterized by peer critique and co-construction of educational artifacts as the primary mode of assessment.

A "multiple cultural model" of instructional design emphasizes variability and flexibility in the process of designing for multicultural inclusiveness, focusing on the development of learning environments reflecting the multicultural realities of society, include multiple ways of teaching and learning, and promote equity of outcomes.[60][61] McLoughlin, C. & Oliver[62] propose a social, constructivist approach to the design of culturally-sensitive CSCL environments which emphasizes flexibility with regard to specific learning tasks, tools, roles, responsibilities, communication strategies, social interactions, learning goals and modes of assessment [B5]. Constructivist instructional design approaches such as R2D2[63] which emphasize reflexive, recursive, participatory design of learning experiences may be employed in developing CSCL which authentically engages learners from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds.

Dyslexia primarily involves difficulties with reading, spelling and sentence structure, transposition, memory, organization and time management, and lack of confidence.[64] Dyslexia has in the past two decades become increasingly present in research and legislation. The United Kingdom passed the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 in which institutions were required to "reasonably adjust" instruction for students with disabilities, particularly physical and sensory disabilities; in 2002, the Special Education Needs and Disabilities Act adjusted the legislation to include learning disabilities.

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) established that all students with disabilities must be included in all state and districtwide assessments of student progress. The ADA also guarantees equal accommodation for disabled people in, "employment, public accommodations, state and local government services, transportation, and telecommunications."[64]

In recent years, tools such as WebHelpDyslexia and other capabilities of web applications have increased the availability of tools to provide coping skills for students with dyslexia.[65]

In 2006, Woodfine argued that dyslexia can impact the ability of a student to participate in synchronous e-learning environments, especially if activities being completed are text-based. During experimental qualitative research, Woodfine found that data suggested "learners with dyslexia might suffer from embarrassment, shame and even guilt about their ability to interact with other learners when in a synchronous environment."[64]

In a study by Fichten et al., it was found that assistive technology can be beneficial in aiding students with the progression of their reading and writing skills. Tools such as spell check or text-to-speech can be helpful to learners with dyslexia by allowing them to focus more on self-expression and less on errors.[66]

Alsobhi, et al., examined assistive technologies for dyslexic students and concluded that the most fundamental considerations to be had when serving students of this population are: "the learning styles that people with dyslexia exhibit, and how assistive technology can be adapted to align with these learning behaviors."[66]

The Dyslexia Adaptive E-Learning (DAEL) is a suggested a framework that proposes four dimensions that cover 26 attributes. The proposed framework asks educators to make decisions based on perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and system adaptability:

• perceived ease of use: This refers to the degree to which a student believes that using the technology is free of effort.[67] One technique to increase the perceived ease of use includes utilizing technology in which self-descriptiveness is present. This, coupled with clarity and logical flow of functions, makes the learning process easier and the interaction between the user and machine more convenient.[67]
• perceived usefulness: Defined as how a student's performance, or learning performance, can be enhanced by a system. Studies show the impact of perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness and their role in a users' decision on whether to use a system again. Scaffolding as well as accommodations to the student's learning style will help overcome limitations of system operations, as will feedback geared toward system improvements.[67]
• system adaptability: Refers to the user experiences and the way in which students are given control over a system to increase confidence and comfort in their learning. In addition to implications for the system, the flow of content should be logical and the tone (attitude) of content should be encouraging.[67]

Educators that choose to use the CSCL environment must be aware of 508 compliance and its legal implications. "In the U.S., the criteria for designing Web pages accessibly are provided by two major sets: the W3C's Web Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and the design standards issued under U.S. federal law, Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, as amended in 1998.1 Features of accessible design include, among others, the provision of ALT tags for nontextual elements, such as images, animations and image map hot spots; meaningful link text; logical and persistent page organization, and the inclusion of skip navigation links."[68]

Unfortunately, not all educators are exposed to these guidelines, especially if their collegiate programs do not provide exposure to the use of computers, aspects of web design or technology in education. In some cases, it may be advantageous for the educator to collaborate with an instructional technologist or web designer to ensure 508 guidelines are addressed in the desired learning environment for the CSCL.

Making data machine-readable is leading to the development of virtual assistants and intelligent agents. These are tools which can access data on a user's behalf and will be able to assist learners and collaborators in several ways. They can provide personalized and customized search results by accessing data on a variety of platforms, recommend resources based on user information and preferences, manage administrative tasks, communicate with other agents and databases, and help organize information and interactions with collaborators.[73][75]

Virtual learning communities are cyberspaces that allow for individual and collaborative learning to take place. While they exist today, with Web 3.0 they will gain enhanced features enabling more collaborative learning to take place. Some describe them as evolving out of existing learning management systems (LMSs), adding intelligent agents and virtual assistants that can enhance content searches and deal with administrative and communication tasks,[73] or enabling different LMSs around the world to communicate with each other, creating an even larger community to share resources and locate potential collaborators.[76] Virtual learning communities will also enable different types of peer-to-peer interaction and resource sharing to support co-construction of knowledge.[77] These communities may also include some aspects of 3D gaming and VR.

Through the use of 3D gaming, users can simulate lives of others while providing their knowledge throughout the 3D environment as an avatar. These 3D environments also foster simulation and scenario building[71] for places where users would otherwise not have access. The 3D environments facilitate online knowledge building communities.[78] Non-immersive environments are environments in which not all five senses are used but still allows users to interact in virtual worlds.[79] Virtual Reality (VR) headsets are sometimes used to give users a full immersion experience, into these 3D virtual worlds. This allows users to interact with each other in real time and simulate different learning situations with other users. These learning experiences and environments vary between fields and learning goals.[78] Certain virtual reality headsets allow users to communicate with each other while being in different physical locations.[79]

Multimodal literacy is the way processes of literacy - reading, writing, talking, listening and viewing - are occurring within and around new communication media. (Kress & Jewitt, 2003; Pahl & Rowsell, 2005; Walsh, 2008) It refers to meaning-making that occurs through the reading, viewing, understanding, responding to and producing and interacting with multimedia and digital texts. (Walsh, 2010)

Online forums offer numerous advantages for both teacher and students for collaborative learning online. Discussion forums provide a wider platform to exchange information and ideas, to develop writing and reading skills, critical thinking skills. (Jill Margerison, 2013) A collaborative online forum can also help students learn about the unique challenges of online communication, especially the need for clarity and the dangers of sarcasm. (Susan Martens-Baker, 2009) For the teacher, they offer a flexible platform from which to educate in a participatory culture, where teachers and students can interact with each other and create new knowledge. (Jill Margerison, 2013)

Video games were designed as a learning tool engaged learners who advance through experimentation, critical thinking and practice in the virtual world. (Abrams, 2009) Video games in CSCL can promote positive interdependence, individual accountability, face-to-face promotive interaction, social skills, and group processing abilities in the ELA classroom. Through interactions in the virtual world, learners have the opportunities to establish their presence, identity and create meanings for their lives.

Digital storytelling refers to integrating a variety of means, such as images, audio, video, graphics and diagram to personal narratives and crafts. Four skill competencies: reading, writing, speaking, and listening would be enhanced by producing digital products. (Brenner, 2014) Students have a greater sense of autonomy, agency through the digital storytelling in CSCL.

Online forums provide opportunities for young people to engage in the self-exposition as they practice digital literacies and hone the skill of movement across multiple literacies, languages and subject positions. Meanwhile, identity is a constellation of the multiple communities. It is also important to emphasize the potentially harmful cultural discourses that occur within young people's consumption. (Kim, 2015)

Through capitalizing on students' gaming experiences by recognizing how they apply to the subject at hand, teachers can highlight the benefits of virtual learning environments and draw upon students' gaming experiences to understand their application of virtual learning across curricula. Educators need to choose the appropriate game for the particular subject to endorse their instruction and promote collaboration among students.

Students who engage in collaborative learning for creating digital production show the characteristics of leadership. Moreover, students would gain the experience of collaboration and expand their skill of the multimodal literacy. In addition, digital composition provides a meaningful tool for teachers to assess. (Brenner, 2014)

Multimodal literacy can facilitate English learners' literacy learning. It has provided opportunities for English learners to expand the interpretation of texts. (Ajayi, 2009) Specifically, English language learners can increase their language ability through computer-collaborative learning. The multimodality platforms provide students, especially ELLs with an anxiety-free zone to collaborate with their peers in a virtual world in order to make meanings together. Technology self-efficacy increases ELLs' level of independence and reduces their level of anxiety. (Mellati, Zangoei & Khademi, 2015) ELLs will have more motivation and self-confident while participating in online group projects to make contributions and share knowledge with their peers. As a result of collaborative learning, ELLs would expand their vocabulary, gain advanced and more academic grammars.

The applications of CSCL in post-secondary education demonstrate positive impacts on students' learning such as promoting learner interaction, motivation and understanding.[80] As collaborative learning is grounded in social constructivism, the interaction and collaboration during learning is valued.

There's research findings that shows online students had higher scores than face-to-face students in professional competence acquisition test, showing the effectiveness of CSCL in promoting the development of professional skills[81]

Knowledge co-construction among geographically dispersed students in an online postgraduate program was explained in a study as students relied heavily on each other for their on-going participation in the online discussions and joint refinement of ideas introduced.[82]

The design principles for using CSCL can be considered from different perspectives. For technical use, instructors need to provide tutorials and online training modules to students.[83] For collaboration, students need time to plan and coordinate group work as well as instructors' support and guidance[84] on the discussions. Also, group size and composition should be taken into consideration for better quality of interaction.[85] More instructional strategies are presented below.

Wikis is a tool for learners to co-construct knowledge online with the access to create and edit contents. There are three phases of using wikis for collaborative writing:[86]

Phase 1. Crisis of Authority

Users experience challenges due to unfamiliarity with the use of wiki and the unknown of other teammates' boundaries of being commented or revised on their writings.

Phase 2. Crisis of Relationship

Collaborative learning emerges and group communication is improved.

Phase 3. Resolution of Crisis

More frequent communication occurs and increased co-writing among team members.

To better design wiki-based project, the design principles design include:

1. Provide learners with a practice article to edit at the beginning of a course for getting familiar with using wikis

2. Informs learners of different communication tools to work collaboratively.

3. Engage learners with repeated wiki article assignments.

4. Provide timely feedback on students' discussion, participation and interaction.

The characteristic of social interaction in CSCL can be demonstrated on the online learning community where learners can communicate with each other. One of the medium facilitating the online community to work is online learning management system that provides all people including learners, professors, and administrative staff to communicate.

When using an online learning management system for collaborative learning, the instructor should provide technical training by presenting video tutorials, online training modules or online workshops[83]

Mobile CSCL (mCSCL) is beneficial to students' learning achievements, attitude and interactions.[85] The suggested design principles from CSCL include:

1. An idea group size is around 3 to 4 people.

2. A duration between 1 and 4 weeks demonstrate better effects. The criticisms version indicate in the case of short term course the interactions networks not consolidate.[87]

Professional teacher communities are positively related to student learning, teacher learning, teacher practice and school culture. Teacher collaboration is a significant element of these communities. Reflection‐oriented tasks (such as reflection on teaching performance in individual writing, peer feedback, and collective writing) stimulated participation, and in combination with task structure also interaction in these communities.[88] Furthermore, structured tasks(such as crossword puzzles, the path to come to a solution is unambiguous and answers can be immediately checked) which required critical reflection on personal experiences and perspectives triggered task‐related communication and a deep level of information exchange.

The European Union Comenius fund sponsored FISTE project which is concerned with the educational use of information and communication technologies (ICTs), specifically with the development and dissemination of a new pedagogical strategy for distance learning through in-service teacher education in schools across Europe.[89] This project uses the online Virtual Learning Environment platform BSCW as a Computer Supportive Communication Learning tool to facilitate the way the participants work together. This work has involved schools and teacher training providers, building culturally different work in in-service teacher education in the participating countries. The value of using CSCL supported technology for in-service teacher education in Europe lies in the concept of hinterland. Cross-national courses like the FISTE would be difficult to run without this technological approach.