Challenges in online collaboration: effects of scripting shared task perceptions

Difficulties with planning, such as negotiating task understandings and goals, can have a profound effect on regulation and task performance when students work collaboratively (Miller and Hadwin, Computers in Human Behaviour, 52, 573-588, 2015a). Despite planning being a common challenge, teams often fail to identify strategies for addressing those challenges successfully. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of team planning support in the form of awareness visualizations (quantified, nominal, and no visualization of individual planning perceptions summarized across group members) on the challenges students face during collaboration, and the ways they report regulating in the face of those challenges. Findings revealed differences across conditions. Individuals in the no visualization condition (a) rated planning as more problematic, and (b) were likely to encounter doing the task, checking progress, and group work challenges when they encounter planning challenges, (c) reported more time and planning main challenges compared to doing the task and group work challenges, and (d) reported that planning strategies (adopted as a team) were most effective for addressing planning challenges, followed by teamwork strategies which were less effective. In contrast, individuals belonging to groups who received one of the two visualizations (a) reported that both planning and teamwork strategies to be equally effective for addressing planning challenges, and (b) reported higher levels of success with their strategies than groups without a visualization support. Findings attest to the importance of supporting group planning with planning visualizations.

[1]  Daniel Bodemer,et al.  Supporting controversial CSCL discussions with augmented group awareness tools , 2007, Int. J. Comput. Support. Collab. Learn..

[2]  Pierre Dillenbourg,et al.  What we know about CSCL and implementing it in higher education , 2004 .

[3]  S. Holm.  A Simple Sequentially Rejective Multiple Test Procedure , 1979 .

[4]  E. Soloway,et al.  Learning With Peers: From Small Group Cooperation to Collaborative Communities , 1996 .

[5]  M. Chiu,et al.  Rudeness and status effects during group problem solving: Do they bias evaluations and reduce the likelihood of correct solutions? , 2003 .

[6]  Mariel Miller,et al.  Scripting and awareness tools for regulating collaborative learning: Changing the landscape of support in CSCL , 2015, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[7]  Sanna Järvelä,et al.  Regulation of emotions in socially challenging learning situations: an instrument to measure the adaptive and social nature of the regulation process , 2013 .

[8]  Paul Brna,et al.  Presence and Reflection in Training: Support for Learning to Improve Quality Decision-Making Skills under Time Limitations , 2001, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[9]  Sanna Järvelä,et al.  Self-Regulation, Co-Regulation, and Shared Regulation in Collaborative Learning Environments , 2017 .

[10]  S. Volet,et al.  Group work does not necessarily equal collaborative learning: evidence from observations and self-reports , 2010 .

[11]  A. Hadwin,et al.  Regulation and socio-emotional interactions in a positive and a negative group climate , 2018 .

[12]  Jan M. Zottmann,et al.  Collaboration Scripts in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning , 2013 .

[13]  Albert J. J. A. Scherpbier,et al.  Understanding the effects of time on collaborative learning processes in problem based learning: a mixed methods study , 2014, Advances in health sciences education : theory and practice.

[14]  Päivi Häkkinen,et al.  Facilitating socio-cognitive and socio-emotional monitoring in collaborative learning with a regulation macro script – an exploratory study , 2017, Int. J. Comput. Support. Collab. Learn..

[15]  Hanna Järvenoja,et al.  Socio-emotional conflict in collaborative learning—A process-oriented case study in a higher education context , 2014 .

[16]  Amy C. Edmondson,et al.  Overcoming Barriers to Collaboration: Psychological Safety and Learning in Diverse Teams , 2008 .

[17]  Nikol Rummel,et al.  Learning to collaborate while being scripted or by observing a model , 2009, Int. J. Comput. Support. Collab. Learn..

[18]  Jonna Malmberg,et al.  Exploring temporal sequences of regulatory phases and associated interactions in low- and high-challenge collaborative learning sessions , 2017 .

[19]  Anthony S. Bryk,et al.  Hierarchical Linear Models: Applications and Data Analysis Methods , 1992 .

[20]  Paul A. Kirschner,et al.  Awareness of cognitive and social behaviour in a CSCL environment , 2015, J. Comput. Assist. Learn..

[21]  Sanna Järvelä,et al.  Enhancing socially shared regulation in collaborative learning groups: designing for CSCL regulation tools , 2014, Educational Technology Research and Development.

[22]  Ann Walker,et al.  British Psychology Students' Perceptions of Group-Work and Peer Assessment , 2001 .

[23]  P. Winne,et al.  Feedback and Self-Regulated Learning: A Theoretical Synthesis , 1995 .

[24]  Brigid Barron.  When Smart Groups Fail , 2003 .

[25]  P. Kirschner,et al.  Social and Cognitive Factors Driving Teamwork in Collaborative Learning Environments , 2006 .

[26]  M. Miller,et al.  Leveraging CSCL technology to support and research shared task perceptions in socially shared regulation of learning , 2015 .

[27]  F. Tuerlinckx,et al.  Task perception as a mediating variable: a contribution to the validation of instructional knowledge. , 2001, The British journal of educational psychology.

[28]  J. Janssen,et al.  Task-related and social regulation during online collaborative learning , 2012 .

[29]  Gijsbert Erkens,et al.  Mediating team effectiveness in the context of collaborative learning: The importance of team and task awareness , 2011, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[30]  Hanna Järvenoja,et al.  Socially shared regulation of learning and participation in social interaction in collaborative learning , 2017 .

[31]  Kayleigh Carabajal,et al.  Critical Analysis of Models and Methods Used To Evaluate Online Learning Networks. , 2001 .

[32]  Päivi Häkkinen,et al.  Conceptualizing the Awareness of Collaboration: A Qualitative Study of a Global Virtual Team , 2005, Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW).

[33]  S. Järvelä,et al.  Self-Regulated, Co-Regulated, and Socially Shared Regulation of Learning , 2011 .

[34]  Sanna Järvelä,et al.  Higher education students’ learning challenges and regulatory skills in different learning situations / Desafíos de aprendizaje y habilidades de regulación en distintas situaciones de aprendizaje en estudiantes de educación superior , 2017 .

[35]  Hanna Järvenoja,et al.  Emotion control in collaborative learning situations: do students regulate emotions evoked by social challenges? , 2009, The British journal of educational psychology.

[36]  Allyson F. Hadwin,et al.  Enhancing the Quality of Learning: Promoting Learning Skills in Undergraduate Students , 2012 .

[37]  C. D. De Dreu,et al.  Task versus relationship conflict, team performance, and team member satisfaction: a meta-analysis. , 2003, The Journal of applied psychology.

[38]  Toni Kempler Rogat,et al.  Socially Shared Regulation in Collaborative Groups: An Analysis of the Interplay Between Quality of Social Regulation and Group Processes , 2011 .

[39]  B. Zimmerman.  Self-Regulated Learning and Academic Achievement: An Overview , 1990 .

[40]  Sniezek,et al.  The Social Influence of Confidence in Group Decision Making , 1997, Journal of experimental social psychology.

[41]  Maria Bannert,et al.  Supporting self-regulated hypermedia learning through prompts , 2011, Instructional Science.

[42]  Pieter J. Beers,et al.  Coercing shared knowledge in collaborative learning environments , 2006, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[43]  Timothy J. Robinson,et al.  Multilevel Analysis: Techniques and Applications , 2002 .

[44]  Helen Crompton,et al.  Investigating how college students’ task definitions and plans relate to self-regulated learning processing and understanding of a complex science topic , 2012 .

[45]  Hanna Järvenoja,et al.  Research on Motivation in Collaborative Learning: Moving Beyond the Cognitive–Situative Divide and Combining Individual and Social Processes , 2010 .

[46]  Maria Bannert,et al.  Self-Regulation of Learning and Performance in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning Environments , 2017 .

[47]  D. Knippenberg,et al.  Group information elaboration and group decision making: The role of shared task representations , 2008 .

[48]  S. Järvelä,et al.  New Frontiers: Regulating Learning in CSCL , 2013 .

[49]  Philip H. Winne,et al.  The weave of motivation and self-regulated learning. , 2008 .

[50]  Catherine M. Mulryan.  Student Passivity During Cooperative Small Groups in Mathematics , 1992 .

[51]  G.L.M. Schellings,et al.  Signaling task awareness in think-aloud protocols from students selecting relevant information from text , 2011 .

[52]  Paul A. Kirschner,et al.  Identifying the pitfalls for social interaction in computer-supported collaborative learning environments: a review of the research , 2003, Comput. Hum. Behav..