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Collaborative learning entails the involvement and the cooperation of a group of persons with the purpose of learning. Collaborative learning scripts aim to orchestrate the complex interaction among group members while Computer Supported Collaborative Learning scripts (CSCL scripts) is the research field in which IT techniques are involved in the management of the aspects of such an interaction. This article presents assessment-related aspects of an existing CSCL script authoring and deployment platform called COSTLyP. Assessment, nowadays, is considered as a vital constituent of CSCL scripts since it may affect some of their necessary components and mechanisms. The outcome of the implementation of an assessment plan may determine what should be the next step in a collaboration activity or what actions should be undertaken to bridge the gap between the expected results and the achieved level of knowledge or expertise. At the same time, assessment can also verify the regulation level that is required within each group; consequently, these scripts should be flexibly designed in order to adapt their evolution to the real needs of the participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collaborative learning entails the involvement and the cooperation of a group of persons with the purpose of learning. Collaborative learning scripts aim to orchestrate the complex interaction among group members while Computer Supported Collaborative Learning scripts (CSCL scripts) is the research field in which IT techniques are involved in the management of the aspects of such an interaction. This article presents assessment-related aspects of an existing CSCL script authoring and deployment platform called COSTLyP. Assessment, nowadays, is considered as a vital constituent of CSCL scripts since it may affect some of their necessary components and mechanisms. The outcome of the implementation of an assessment plan may determine what should be the next step in a collaboration activity or what actions should be undertaken to bridge the gap between the expected results and the achieved level of knowledge or expertise. At the same time, assessment can also verify the regulation level that is required within each group; consequently, these scripts should be flexibly designed in order to adapt their evolution to the real needs of the participants.

Under the notion of "CSCL scripts", different pedagogical models for structuring and supporting collaboration in the classroom have been proposed. We report on a practical experience with scripts based on the Pyramid collaborative learning flow pattern supported by a specific classroom tool and a teacher-facing dashboard that implements mirroring and guiding support. The input data of our analysis stems from recordings of classroom interactions guided by several teachers using the PyramidApp with different levels of teaching support. For the analysis, we introduce a specific coding scheme enabling a quantitative comparison and deeper analysis using epistemic network analysis. The results show that the guiding support enabled teachers to perform more orchestration actions, more targeted interactions and to make more announcements to the class (regarding time, phase transitions, and students' activity participation) when compared to the mirroring support. Teachers' actionable differences observed under the mirroring and guiding support directed us to deconstruct the notion of orchestration load into different facets and to discuss how different support provisions correspond to the different facets of orchestration load. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scripting computer-supported collaborative learning has been shown to greatly enhance learning, but is often criticized for hindering learners' agency and thus undermining learners' motivation. Beyond that, what makes some CSCL scripts particularly effective for learning is still a conundrum. This meta-analysis synthesizes the results of 53 primary studies that experimentally compared the effect of learning with a CSCL script to unguided collaborative learning on at least one of the variables motivation, domain learning, and collaboration skills. Overall, 5616 learners enrolled in K-12, higher education, or professional development participated in the included studies. The results of a random-effects meta-analysis show that learning with CSCL scripts leads to a non-significant positive effect on motivation (Hedges' g = 0.13), a small positive effect (Hedges' g = 0.24) on domain learning and a medium positive effect (Hedges' g = 0.72) on collaboration skills. Additionally, the meta-analysis shows how scaffolding single particular collaborative activities and scaffolding a combination of collaborative activities affects the effectiveness of CSCL scripts and that synergistic or differentiated scaffolding is hard to achieve. This meta-analysis offers the first counterevidence against the widespread criticism that CSCL scripts have negative motivational effects. Furthermore, the findings can be taken as evidence for the robustness of the positive effects on domain learning and collaboration skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Project-based learning (PBL) is a pedagogical approach that many higher education programmes have incorporated. In PBL, students work in a team or group on a specific project for an extended period of time facilitated by an instructor. Previous studies have identified group work collaboration as a key challenge in PBL. To address this, the authors take inspiration from the computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) field by proposing a scripted CSCL environment called the Project-Based Learning ActIvity Designer (PBL-AID). Design-based research (DBR) was utilised as the methodological framework during the iterative stages of developing this environment. An empirical study of the first iteration of the DBR process was carried out, with the aim to explore and investigate instructors’ perceptions and technological needs. A mixed-methods approach was used in the evaluation. Findings indicate positive feedback for the PBL-AID environment in general, although there is room for further improvements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a contribution to the development of a theory of CSCL scripts, i.e., an understanding of what happens when learners engage in such scripts. It builds on the Script Theory of Guidance (SToG) recently proposed by (Fischer et al. in Educational Psychologist, 48(1), 56-66, 2013). We argue that, when engaged in a collaborative situation structured by a CSCL script, what learners consider is not 'the script', but their appropriation of the script. Appropriation is a complex cognitive process which plays a role in both the recognition/conceptualization of the task to be achieved and its enactment, and is not dependent on the script only: it may be influenced by different external aspects. Therefore SToG and, actually, any theoretical framework attempting to provide an explanation of what happens when learners engage in CSCL scripts, should take into account appropriation issues. We develop our argumentation by focusing on technology-related aspects of appropriation and the role of institutional, domain and motivational aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brainstorming is a widely used method for enhancing creativity. Interactive tabletops offer promise for making brainstorming more effective. This is because tabletops should help collocated people collaborate in natural round-table discussions at a shared digital space. However, tabletops have not been found in and of themselves to improve collaboration. This paper explores how to adapt an approach called scripted collaboration to enhance the effectiveness of tabletop brainstorming. We describe the design and implementation of ScriptStorm in two forms: fixed scripting, where the table enforces a set script that the brainstorming participants cannot alter, in the spirit of a human facilitator; and participant-defined scripting, where the interface gives participants control over the script settings. We hypothesised that: the additional interface complexity of the scripting is acceptable in terms of learning time and usability (H1-usability); both forms of scripting support effective brainstorming (H2-effectiveness); people consider that both forms of scripting help them learn about how to brainstorm (H3-learning); and people would prefer participant-defined scripting for the control it gave them over the script (H4-control). We conducted a user study to evaluate these hypotheses. Our results give support to all four hypotheses, although the relative benefits of fixed scripting and participant-defined scripting are nuanced. Our key contributions are insights into two ways that scripted collaboration can support brainstorming, pointing to the potential benefits of fixed scripting and participant-defined scripting for other classes of collaborative tabletop activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a model whose primary concern and design rationale is to offer users (teachers) with basic ICT skills an intuitive, easy, and flexible way of editing scripts. The proposal is based on relating an end-user representation as a table and a machine model as a tree. The table-tree model introduces structural expressiveness and semantics that are limited but straightforward and intuitive. This approach is less expressive and introduces less semantics than approaches based on workflow representations and complex meta-models. However, it may be enhanced to represent complex features such as by-intention grouping mechanisms, constraint checking or configuration of enactment frameworks. A usability test suggests that the model/interface is easy to use and that teachers avail themselves of the flexibility available to model scripts according to their perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some recent proposals on CSCL scripts have suggested that one key factor for their effectiveness is the ability of the teacher to adapt the scripts to the students and to the specific teaching and learning situations. In this context, this paper presents a multiple-case study dealing with the relationship between the assistance given by the teacher during the collaborative process and the forms of collaborative work developed by groups of university students in two natural settings, in which two different types of macro-script are used. Specifically, the study sets itself three objectives: (1) to identify patterns of teacher assistance to the collaborative work developed by the groups; (2) to identify the forms of collaborative work developed by the groups; and (3) to explore the relationships between the patterns of teacher assistance, the forms of collaborative work and the level of performance achieved by the groups. The results show two different patterns of teacher assistance in the two settings. These patterns differ on four dimensions: the aspect of the task on which the teacher was offering assistance, the moment in which the assistance was offered, the recipient of the assistance, and whether the assistance offered by the teacher was spontaneous or requested by the students. These patterns are related with the forms of collaborative work developed by the groups (how the group is organized and how the written work is produced) within the structural framework imposed, in each setting, by the macro-script. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collaboration scripts facilitate social and cognitive processes of collaborative learning by shaping the way learners interact with each other. Computer-supported collaboration scripts generally suffer from the problem of being restrained to a specific learning platform. A standardization of collaboration scripts first requires a specification of collaboration scripts that integrates multiple perspectives from computer science, education and psychology. So far, only few and limited attempts at such specifications have been made. This paper aims to consolidate and expand these approaches in light of recent findings and to propose a generic framework for the specification of collaboration scripts. The framework enables a description of collaboration scripts using a small number of components (participants, activities, roles, resources and groups) and mechanisms (task distribution, group formation and sequencing). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]