Three Stages in the Social Construction of Virtual Learning Environments

Schools located in rural communities are often physically small in terms of the number of students who attend them in person on a daily basis, but through the introduction of e-learning partnerships, they can become large educational institutions based on the enhanced range of teaching and learning they can provide. Small school capacities can be enhanced by e-learning and the creation of virtual learning environments. Structurally, the capacity of schools can be enhanced by internet-based inter-institutional collaboration. Pedagogically, e-learning can enable schools to share teaching and learning within virtual learning environments spanning participating sites to facilitate student engagement with ideas, people and places in new, interactive ways. Three stages are identified in the development of teaching and learning in the virtual structures that complement traditional schools.

Supporting Virtual Learning through E-Tutoring

E-tutoring is a hot topic in the context of virtual learning. As such learning environments become more prevalent in schools, universities or vocational training, providing adequate support for learners is becoming increasingly important – not only for individual, but also for collaborative learning. Therefore, there has been a lot of interest in using e-tutoring to foster learning processes and improve the performance of learners. Furthermore, an e-tutor can help prevent phenomena which are common in e-learning environments, such as feeling anonymous and isolated. In this chapter, we would like to first provide a theoretical introduction to e-tutoring that includes the definition, tasks and competencies of an e-tutor. Secondly, we will discuss the e-tutor in action, illustrated by a training for e-tutors and a virtual seminar which was supported by an e-tutor.

Transactive Memory and Technology in Work Groups and Organizations

Transactive memory is a shared awareness among individuals about who knows what. Many studies show that work groups can develop transactive memory systems, and that groups whose systems are stronger perform better. Although organizations have been studied less often in this regard, the available evidence suggests that they can develop transactive memory systems too, and that stronger systems improve their performance as well. Technology can be a tool for strengthening transactive memory systems in work groups and (especially) organizations. Unfortunately, workers often resist using such technology, which limits its effectiveness. Several explanations for that resistance are considered, but the major problem is that workers simply prefer to locate and share their knowledge using interpersonal rather than technological methods. Instead of attempting to overcome this preference, it might be wiser for organizations to explore ways to strengthen interpersonal methods of sharing knowledge among workers.

Flexible Peer Assessment Formats to Acknowledge Individual Contributions During (Web-Based) Collaborative Learning

In (web-based) collaborative learning, practitioners increasingly stress the need to acknowledge individual efforts. To this end, peer assessment is regarded as a valuable tool. Research, however, shows shortcomings in the calculations and flexibility of peer assessment formats that are used to transform a group score into individual scores. This chapter proposes an innovative approach by presenting peer assessment formats that underlie sound formulas, but moreover allow flexibility in peer assessment design. Subsequently, the effects of the formats on individual scores are investigated. The results reveal that our formulas and formats outweigh ‘traditional’ practices to utilise peer assessment for transforming a group score into individual scores. Guidelines for practitioners on the application of peer assessment formats are presented, as well as an outline for a research agenda with a strong focus on the development of flexible peer assessment in (web-based) collaborative based learning.

Supporting Collaboration and Communication in Videoconferences

Working together in a group may lead to advantages such as a higher task performance, gains in individual knowledge or social skills, or a higher motivation. In many situations of our daily life, the members of a group cannot meet face-to-face to work together but have to rely on communication media. This paper focuses on collaboration with the support of specific communication media, namely videoconferences. Two empirical studies will be described. The first study shows that groups which communicate via videoconferences for solving a task can achieve the same results as face-to-face groups. In order to achieve results equivalent to face-to-face groups, videoconference groups have to adapt their communication behavior to the specific characteristics of videoconferences. In the second study presented in this chapter, different trainings for collaboration in videoconferences will be investigated. One of the trainings in which students learned rules for collaborative problem-solving proved to be successful: Students who had obtained such a training achieved better problem solutions than students without a training.

How to Design Support for Collaborative E-Learning

Research on collaborative e-learning has often shown the effectiveness of students’ interaction on their group performance and their individual learning outcomes. However, these positive effects cannot always be found. Collaboration assistance such as pre-collaboration training and collaboration scripts have been shown to support student interaction and problem-solving. When developing assistance for collaboration, teachers and designers must make decisions concerning the processes the support should target, the timing of support, and the interplay of support on multiple levels. The framework we introduce in this book chapter describes these dimensions in detail. We present advantages and disadvantages of different design options, and give an example from our own research to exemplify the design of an e-learning environment that provides collaboration support. We discuss how the circumstances of any particular learning situation might influence which type of support is optimal, and conclude the book chapter with a discussion of possible future developments.

Contributions of E-Collaborative Knowledge Construction to Professional Learning and Expertise

Modern employment and work life demands employees who continuously develop and actualize their competencies. Information and computer technology (ICT) provides rich opportunities to support individuals in their professional learning. This contribution describes professional learning from the perspective of research on expertise, which analyses the development of knowledge structures on the way from novice to high performing expert. First, a general concept of competence and knowledge development is to be discussed and different types of knowledge are to be distinguished. Then this contribution discusses opportunities to support this development with e-learning scenarios on the various levels of knowledge construction. The main argument is that e-learning opportunities are an option to overcome the traditional distinction between formal and informal learning. However, crucial challenges for implementing e-collaborative knowledge construction remain – as the contribution finally will conclude.

Online Learning Environments, Scientific Argumentation, and 21st Century Skills

A workshop held at the National Academies in the United States in 2007 highlighted five broad categories of skills that appear valuable across a range of jobs for people working in modern global economies. Engaging students in scientific argumentation can support the development of these 21st century skills. Unfortunately, opportunities are rare in typical classrooms for students to learn how to engage in scientific argumentation. Over the past ten years several online environments have been developed to support students engaging with one another in scientific argumentation. This paper considers how engaging students in scientific argumentation through the activity structures and scripts in these online environments could also support the development of 21st century skills. More specifically, the paper considers how WISE Seeded Discussions, CASSIS, VCRI, and DREW can support students’ development of Adaptability, Complex Communication Skills, Non-Routine Problem-Solving Skills, Self-Management/Self-Development, and Systems Thinking.

Collaborative Knowledge Construction

In discussions centered on jointly solving a problem or case, significant construction of new knowledge can occur. Several theoretical frameworks have been invoked to explain the productivity of dialogues, but questions about the relative or unique impact on learning of the multiple facets of dialogues remain. We present an analytical approach that studies small-group discussions from the perspective of joint cognitive processing of knowledge and information. We illustrate our approach through a microanalysis of two discussions that were held in a real-world educational setting. We show that knowledge construction can overlap significantly with critical argumentation, but may occur even in its absence. On the basis of these findings we propose a refined definition of co-construction, and a view of the inter-relations between interaction and co-construction. We discuss the implications of our findings for the analysis and evaluation of differences in knowledge co-construction in different environments.

Computer-Supported Collaborative Scientific Conceptual Change

One problem in science education is that students neither construct in-depth conceptual understanding nor are they able to apply scientific thinking processes. A myriad of studies on conceptual change have investigated the nature and process of conceptual change, and pedagogical strategies to foster conceptual change and improve higher-level thinking. We propose a new framework - the collaborative scientific conceptual change model – to stresses the importance of high quality collaborative discourse and scientific epistemic practices in the process of conceptual change. To investigate how group interactions influence individual students’ learning gains, multilevel analysis was used to analyze the hierarchically nested data and qualitative analyses were presented to compare high and low-achievement groups’ discourse and their application of epistemic practices. The results found that predicting and coordinating theory and evidence were key practices that predicted students’ individual posttest performance and the group interactions were related to the group understanding.