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International audience; Paid crowdsourcing connects task requesters to a globalized, skilled workforce that is available 24/7. In doing so, this new labor model promises not only to complete work faster and more efficiently than any previous approach but also to harness the best of our collective capacities. Nevertheless, for almost a decade now, crowdsourcing has been limited to addressing rather straightforward and simple tasks. Large-scale innovation, creativity, and wicked problem-solving are still largely out of the crowd’s reach. In this opinion paper, we argue that existing crowdsourcing practices bear significant resemblance to the management paradigm of Taylorism. Although criticized and often abandoned by modern organizations, Taylorism principles are prevalent in many crowdsourcing platforms, which employ practices such as the forceful decomposition of all tasks regardless of their knowledge nature and the disallowing of worker interactions, which diminish worker motivation and performance. We argue that a shift toward post-Taylorism is necessary to enable the crowd address at scale the complex problems that form the backbone of today’s knowledge economy. Drawing from recent literature, we highlight four design rules that can help make this shift, namely, endorsing social crowd networks, encouraging teamwork, scaffolding ownership of one’s work within the crowd, and leveraging algorithm-guided worker self-coordination.

As the volume and complexity of distributed online work increases, the collaboration among people who have never worked together in the past is becoming increasingly necessary. Recent research has proposed algorithms to maximize the performance of such teams by grouping workers according to a set of predefined decision criteria. This approach micro-manages workers, who have no say in the team formation process. Depriving users of control over who they will work with stifles creativity, causes psychological discomfort and results in less-than-optimal collaboration results. In this work, we propose an alternative model, called Self-Organizing Teams (SOTs), which relies on the crowd of online workers itself to organize into effective teams. Supported but not guided by an algorithm, SOTs are a new human-centered computational structure, which enables participants to control, correct and guide the output of their collaboration as a collective. Experimental results, comparing SOTs to two benchmarks that do not offer user agency over the collaboration, reveal that participants in the SOTs condition produce results of higher quality and report higher teamwork satisfaction. We also find that, similarly to machine learning-based self-organization, human SOTs exhibit emergent collective properties, including the presence of an objective function and the tendency to form more distinct clusters of compatible teammates.

L’e-tandem, comme moyen de formation à distance dans un dispositif hybride comprenant formation en présence et à distance permet de développer la compétence conversationnelle en langue étrangère et la compétence (inter)culturelle. Les sessions tandem constituent une extension des exercices oraux donnés dans le cadre d’une formation Bac + 1 en linguistique appliquée. Des paires d'étudiants francophones (ULiège) et néerlandophones (KU Leuven) se contactent chaque semaine en alternant les langues. Les recherches montrent que les conversations libres ne développent pas de facto une compétence interculturelle. Il faut donc réfléchir à des types d’activités langagières qui conduisent au développement des compétences orales et (inter)culturelles. Deux types de scénarios de conversation sont testés successivement : une macro-tâche (basée sur la pédagogie du projet) visant à démanteler les stéréotypes (le projet se réalise sur plusieurs séances de discussion) ; des conversations avec des sujets précis et ponctuels visant à développer la conscientisation culturelle. L’analyse des perceptions des étudiants montre que les conversations ponctuelles sont plus efficaces pour le développement des compétences ciblées, car, contrairement à la macro-tâche, elles se réalisent uniquement oralement. Lorsque la tâche est trop complexe, l'utilisation de l’écrit semble inévitable. Les étudiants semblent néanmoins préférer le scénario de la conversation libre. The e-tandem, as a means of distance learning in a hybrid system including presence learning and distance learning, makes it possible to develop oral proficiency in a foreign language and (inter)cultural competence. The tandem sessions are an extension of the oral exercises given as part of a Bac + 1 course in applied linguistics. Pairs of French-speaking (ULiège) and Dutch-speaking (KU Leuven) students contact each other every week, alternating languages. Research shows that free conversations do not de facto develop intercultural competence. It is therefore necessary to think about the types of language activities that lead to the development of oral and (inter)cultural skills. Two types of conversation scenarios are tested successively: first a macro-task (based on the pedagogy of the project) aimed at dismantling stereotypes (the project is carried out over several discussion sessions); second some conversations with specific and punctual subjects aimed at developing cultural awareness. Analysis of student perceptions shows that one-time conversations (punctual subjects) are more effective in developing targeted skills because, unlike macro-tasking, they are only carried out orally. When the task is too complex, students rather contact each other in writing. However, it seems that students prefer the script of free conversations.

à paraitre en 2012; Our study focuses on the effects of forum and chat tools on vocabulary learning in French as a foreign language and on tutors' help. Qualitative data were collected from chat sessions and messages on the forum as well as a questionnaire, in a learning environment with 21 French tutors providing support from a distance to 13 learners in their written macro-task. The results show that most frequent problems concerned written form and the use of English, and that tutors rarely reacted to them. When they did, they provided varied support that has resolved some difficulties.; Notre étude concerne les effets du forum de discussion et du clavardage sur les problèmes de vocabulaire en Français Langue Étrangère et l'aide des tuteurs. Les données qualitatives ont été recueillies à l'aide de sessions de clavardage enregistrées, de messages de forum et par questionnaire, à partir d'un dispositif impliquant 21 tuteurs francophones accompagnant à distance 13 apprenants dans leur réalisation d'une macro-tâche écrite. Les résultats révèlent principalement des erreurs de forme écrite et d'utilisation de l'anglais, et montrent que les tuteurs, bien qu'intervenant rarement sur ces problèmes, proposent des aides variées qui, pour certaines, s'avèrent efficaces.

Notre étude concerne les effets du forum de discussion et du clavardage sur les problèmes de vocabulaire en Français Langue Étrangère et l’aide des tuteurs. Les données qualitatives ont été recueillies à l’aide de sessions de clavardage enregistrées, de messages de forum et par questionnaire, à partir d’un dispositif impliquant 21 tuteurs francophones accompagnant à distance 13 apprenants dans leur réalisation d’une macro-tâche écrite. Les résultats révèlent principalement des erreurs de forme écrite et d’utilisation de l’anglais, et montrent que les tuteurs, bien qu’intervenant rarement sur ces problèmes, proposent des aides variées qui, pour certaines, s’avèrent efficaces., Our study focuses on the effects of forum and chat tools on vocabulary learning in French as a foreign language and on tutors’ help. Qualitative data were collected from chat sessions and messages on the forum as well as a questionnaire, in a learning environment with 21 French tutors providing support from a distance to 13 learners in their written macro-task. The results show that most frequent problems concerned written form and the use of English, and that tutors rarely reacted to them. When they did, they provided varied support that has resolved some difficulties.