When the goal of group activities is to support long-term learning, the task of designing well-thought-out collaborative learning (CL) scenarios is an important key to success. To help students adequately acquire and develop their knowledge and skills, a teacher can plan a scenario that increases the probability for learning to occur. Such a…

Several studies have found that participants are willing to share personal information on Facebook, due mainly to trust in fellow group members; however, this trust is often influenced by the discussion environment, methods and participants. A learning facilitator is often employed in entrepreneurial courses but few previous studies have examined…

Wiki-based writing possesses a great deal of educational potential, yet students face difficulties while writing a shared document. Revising a shared document, in particular, seems to be a demanding activity for students. This study investigated whether collaboration scripts can help to improve students' revision activities and overall text…

Although learning through discourse activities seems well-documented, it is unclear which mechanisms and behavioral variables are involved. What exactly contributes to learning when two or more learners interact in online learning environments? To analyze interrelations between central discourse activities and individual learning outcomes at the…

As more and more educational institutions are integrating new technologies (e.g. audience response systems) into their learning systems to support the learning process, it is becoming increasingly necessary to have a thorough understanding of the underlying mechanisms of these advanced technologies and their consequences on student learning…

In order to determine how emotions and cognition are experienced during collaborative group work online students' descriptions of their learning experience were interpreted using a qualitative approach. A common feature of these accounts was reference to difficulties and problems. Four main themes were identified from this data set. Two of the…

Education systems worldwide must strive to support the teaching of a set of New Media Literacies (NMLs). These literacies respond to the need for educating human capital within participatory cultures in a highly technologized world. In this paper, we present Collboard, a constructivist problem solving activity for fostering the development of…

The e-tutor plays a major role in supporting virtual collaborative learning, as he/she supervises learners in collaboratively solving tasks, acquiring new skills, and applying new knowledge. This study is aimed at gaining further insights into the daily support practices of e-tutors. Seventy-six e-tutors from 17 different European countries were…

While the issue of teachers' perspectives on the barriers to technology use has received considerable attention, teacher concerns have not been studied in a systematic and holistic way. The present paper examines teacher concerns regarding a proposed technology-based innovation using Activity Theory as a theoretical framework. Fifty-one teachers…

A limitation of current Web-based collaborative learning is the restricted ability of students to create and share individual annotations with annotated documents. Applying Web 2.0 collaborative annotation systems and analyzing students' annotation behavior has attracted attention to improve collaborative learning. This study designed a…

The progress registered in the use of video games as educational tools has not yet been successfully transferred to the classroom. In an attempt to close this gap, a framework was developed that assists in the design and classroom integration of educational games. The framework addresses both the educational dimension and the ludic dimension. The…

Participation is a complex process, engaging the whole person, implying cognitive, emotional and relational aspects. In online open and distant learning, group work is a commonly used strategy, given its collaborative nature and constructivist framework ([Bates and Poole, 2003], [Garrison and Anderson, 2003] and [Jonassen, 2005]). In this context,…

This study drew on data from two different initiatives in which groups of participants were asked to work together to build knowledge. In the first initiative school students were asked to discuss ethical issues in science, using a moderated online discussion board and in the second, researchers in the field of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL)…

This study examined students- views of collaboration and learning, and investigated how these predict students- online participation in a computer-supported learning environment. The participants were 521 secondary school students in Hong Kong, who took part in online collaborative inquiry conducted using Knowledge Forum[TM]. We developed a…

This study was conducted in an authentic university setting with fourth-year Educational Sciences' students operating as online peer tutors to facilitate freshman tutees' online collaboration and knowledge construction in a blended "Instructional Sciences" course. Taking into account prior research uncovering weaknesses in online peer tutor…