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1. Math in Motion: Analyzing Real-Time Student Collaboration in Computer-Supported Learning Environments

   https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12729878  

   Li, Hongming; Zhang, Shan; Lee, Seiyon; Lee, Ji-Eun; Zhong, Zirui; Weitnauer, Erik; Botelho, Anthony F (July 2024, International Educational Data Mining Society)

   Benjamin, Paaßen; Carrie, Demmans Epp (Ed.)

   With the support of digital learning platforms, synchronous and collaborative learning has become a prominent learning paradigm in mathematics education. Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) has emerged as a valuable tool for enhancing mathematical discourse, problem solving, and ultimately learning outcomes. This paper presents an innovative examination of Graspable Math (GM), a dynamic mathematic notation and learning online platform, to enable synchronous, collaborative learning between pairs of students. Through analyzing students' online log data, we adopt a data-driven method to better understand the intricate dynamics of collaborative learning in mathematics as it happens. Specifically, we apply frequency distributions, cluster analysis to present students' dynamic interaction patterns and identify distinctive profiles of collaboration. Our findings reveal several collaboration profiles that emerge through these analyses. This research not only bridges the gap in current CSCL tools for mathematics, but also provides empirical insights into the effective design and implementation of such tools. The insights gained from this research offer implications for the design of digital learning tools that support effective and engaging collaborative learning experiences. 

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2. The Affordance of Computer-Supportive Collaborative Learning in a Dynamics Course

   Lee, Y. (July 2021, Zone 1 Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education)

   null (Ed.)

   Over the past two decades, educators have used computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) to integrate technology with pedagogy to improve student engagement and learning outcomes. Researchers have also explored the diverse affordances of CSCL, its contributions to engineering instruction, and its effectiveness in K-12 STEM education. However, the question of how students use CSCL resources in undergraduate engineering classrooms remains largely unexplored. This study examines the affordances of a CSCL environment utilized in a sophomore dynamics course with particular attention given to the undergraduate engineering students’ use of various CSCL resources. The resources include a course lecturebook, instructor office hours, a teaching assistant help room, online discussion board, peer collaboration, and demonstration videos. This qualitative study uses semi-structured interview data collected from nine mechanical engineering students (four women and five men) who were enrolled in a dynamics course at a large public research university in Eastern Canada. The interviews focused on the individual student’s perceptions of the school, faculty, students, engineering courses, and implemented CSCL learning environment. The thematic analysis was conducted to analyze the transcribed interviews using a qualitative data analysis software (Nvivo). The analysis followed a six step process: (1) reading interview transcripts multiple times and preliminary in vivo codes; (2) conducting open coding by coding interesting or salient features of the data; (3) collecting codes and searching for themes; (4) reviewing themes and creating a thematic map; (5) finalizing themes and their definitions; and (6) compiling findings. This study found that the students’ use of CSCL resources varied depending on the students’ personal preferences, as well as their perceptions of the given resource’s value and its potential to enhance their learning. For example, the dynamics lecturebook, which had been redesigned to encourage problem solving and note-taking, fostered student collaborative problem solving with their peers. In contrast, the professor’s example video solutions had much more of an influence on students’ independent problem-solving processes. The least frequently used resource was the course’s online discussion forum, which could be used as a means of communication. The findings reveal how computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environments enable engineering students to engage in multiple learning opportunities with diverse and flexible resources to both address and to clarify their personal learning needs. This study strongly recommends engineering instructors adapt a CSCL environment for implementation in their own unique classroom context. 

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3. Using Design-Based Research to Improve Peer Help-Giving in a Middle School Math Classroom

   Mawasi, A.; Ahmed, I.; Walker, E.; Wang, S.; Marasli, Z.; Whitehurst, A.; Wylie, R. (January 2020, International Conference of the Learning Sciences)

   Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) environments are often designed to support collaboration within a single digital platform. However, with the growth of technology in classrooms, students often find themselves working in multiple contexts (i.e., a student might work face-to-face with a peer on one task and then move to engaging in an online discussion for homework). We have created a CSCL environment that aims to support student help-giving across a variety of digital platforms. This paper describes three cycles of a design-based research study that aims to design a system to support help-giving and improve interaction quantity and quality across different contexts as well as to better understand whether students benefit by the addition of multiple contexts. The paper shares major refinements across the three cycles that worked to balance research, pedagogical, and technological goals to improve students’ help-giving behavior in a middle-school mathematics classroom. 

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4. Support Remote Collaboration in Virtual Computer Labs

   Xiaolin Hu, Hai Le (January 2019, ASEE 2019 - the 126th Annual Conference and Exposition, June 15-19, 2019)

   Computer labs are commonly used in computing education to help students reinforce the knowledge obtained in classrooms and to gain hands-on experience on specific learning subjects. While traditional computer labs are based on physical computer centers on campus, more and more virtual computer lab systems (see, e.g., [1, 2, 3, 4]) have been developed that allow students to carry out labs on virtualized resources remotely through the internet. Virtual computer labs make it possible for students to use their own computers at home, instead of relying on computer centers on campus to work on lab assignments. However, they also make it difficult for students to collaborate, due to the fact that students work remotely and there is a lack of support of sharing and collaboration. This is in contrast to traditional computer labs where students naturally feel the presence of their peers in a physical lab room and can easily work together and help each other if needed. Funded by NSF’s Division of Undergraduate Education, this project develops a collaborative virtual computer lab (CVCL) environment to support collaborative learning in virtual computer labs. The CVCL environment leverages existing open source collaboration tools and desktop sharing technologies and adds new functions unique to virtual computer labs to make it easy for students to collaborate while working on computer labs remotely. It also implements several collaborative lab models to support different forms of collaboration in both formal and informal settings. We have developed the main functions of the CVCL environment and begun to use it in classes in the Computer Science (CS) department at Georgia State University. While the original project focuses on computer labs in its traditional sense, the issue of lack of collaboration applies to much broader learning settings where students work on tasks or assignments on computers, with or without being associated with a lab environment. Due to the high mobility of students in modern campuses and the fact that many learning activities are carried out over the Internet, computer-based learning increasingly happen in students’ personal spaces (e.g., homes, apartments), as opposed to public learning spaces (e.g., laboratories, libraries). In these personal spaces, it is difficult for students to get help from classmates or teaching assistants (TAs) when encountering problems. As a result, collaborative learning is difficult and rare. This is especially true for urban universities such as Georgia State University where a significant portion of students are part-time students and/or commute. To address this issue, we intend to broaden the concept of “virtual computer lab” to include general computer based learning happening in “virtual space,” which is any location where people can meet using networked digital devices [5]. Virtual space is recognized as an increasingly important part of “learning spaces” and asks for support from both the technology aspect and learning theory aspect [5]. Collaborative learning environments that support remote collaboration in virtual computer labs would fill an important need in this broader trend. 

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5. Engineering technology, anthropology, and business: Reflections of graduate student researchers in the pursuit of transdisciplinary learning

   Martinez, R; Lucas, D (June 2024, American Society of Engineering Education)

   To pursue transdisciplinary education, bringing together different disciplinary perspectives is necessary. As two graduate researchers, in engineering technology and anthropology, on a National Science Foundation (NSF) Improving Undergraduate STEM Education research project, we want to embody and explore our role in the journey to pursue transdisciplinary education. Our familiarity with higher education as students, our different disciplinary backgrounds and lived experiences, and our training as an engineering technology educator and a social scientist contribute greatly to the advancement of understanding the project. Harnessing our combined expertise enables us to see collaborative co-teaching, group learning, and student engagement in new ways. Often transdisciplinary education research is approached from siloed disciplines or from a single perspective and not inclusive of graduate students' perspectives. We find ourselves working on a collaborative cross-college project between three different colleges, Business, Engineering Technology, and Liberal Arts, where faculty and students are co-teaching and co-learning in a series of design and innovation courses. A key element of this project is gathering and using stakeholder data from students, faculty, and administrators. Midway through our three-year project, the NSF project’s external reviewer highlighted the crucial value added of having graduate researchers looking at transforming higher education towards transdisciplinarity. With that in mind, we offer some guiding thoughts about collaborative research among graduate students and faculty from different academic disciplines. This includes tips on how we collaborated in coding, analysis, and data presentations. Using project examples, we will discuss how we used tools for collaboration such as NVivo Teams and Microsoft Teams; these platforms aided in contributing to the iterative research design of this project and research outputs. Our process was strengthened by active participation in project meetings with faculty, educational community events, and data review sessions to reach data consensus. We have noticed how transdisciplinarity can transform undergraduate learning and encourage cross-college faculty collaboration. We will reflect on the significance of collaboration at all levels of higher education. Furthermore, this experience has set us on the path to becoming transdisciplinary scholars ourselves. 

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