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This paper describes aspirations and contributions that grew out of a developmental cycle of design-based research (DBR) implementation conducted over a three-year project. DBR engineers new learning environments and improves learning in context whilst communicating usable knowledge for learning and teaching in complex settings. This project employed constructionism as an overarching framework, a theory of learning, teaching, and design, which supports that learning occurs more effectively when learners understand the world around them by creating meaningful artifacts that can be probed and shared. In an attempt to infuse elements of constructionism in the use of social technologies, groups of learners were assigned to construct an artifact within social technologies. The main data collection tools employed were students' and instructor's reflections, a questionnaire, semi-structured interviews and observation of groups' activity within social technologies. Such an inquiry revealed both strengths and challenges with regard to implementing DBR and reporting how designs function in real-life settings. This paper brings forward considerations related to reporting intentionally designed interventions, potentials and limitations of DBR and implications for future DBR implementations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Websites that are usable and accessible can have a positive impact on the overall user experience. Usability Inspection Methods (UIMs) can be applied to evaluate and measure the usability. The current research in the fields of Web Accessibility and Human –Computer Interaction (HCI) is in need of additional UIMs that can be applied to also measure the accessibility, in addition to the usability alone. In this article, a novel UIM in the form of a heuristic evaluation is presented. The heuristic evaluation aims to support HCI experts and Web developers in designing and evaluating websites that provide positive user experiences to users who are deaf. This article discusses the development of the Heuristic Evaluation for Deaf Web User Experience (HE4DWUX). Following an iteration cycle, version 2 of the HE4DWUX is presented in Appendix A. An existing three-phase process to develop heuristics for specific application domains was applied to construct the HE4DWUX. The outcome of this research is 12 heuristics, with each containing its own set of checklist items to operationalize its applicability in measuring the Web user experience for users who are deaf. The heuristics and their checklist items can identify important aspects of design that will impact the Web user experience for this particular user group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the research development pertaining to the use of Web 2.0 technologies in the field of Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL). Published research manuscripts related to the use of Web 2.0 tools in CALL have been explored, and the following research foci have been determined: (1) Web 2.0 tools that dominate second/ foreign language classroom; (2) learning/Second Language Acquisition theories that guide their use; (3) skills that Web 2.0 technologies support; (4) reported advantages and challenges in harnessing Web 2.0 tools; and (5) task design considerations. Findings of this study delineate how Web 2.0 tools are utilized in CALL and capitalize Web 2.0 features employed for different types of pedagogical activities. This paper argues that social technologies are valuable tools in the language classrooms but entail challenges regarding their theoretical and pedagogical alignment. The study concludes with some discussion and implications for instructional designers and practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of a three-year design-based research (DBR) study on the use of social technologies for collaborative construction of shareable artifacts by groups of learners. The study builds on the learning theory of constructionism which assumes that knowledge is better gained when students find this knowledge for themselves while engaging in the making of concrete and public artifacts. In an attempt to infuse elements of constructionism in the use of social technologies, we tasked groups of learners in language learning courses with collaborative construction of an artifact using social technologies. A unique characteristic of our approach is that the process that students adopted and the way technology and context fostered this procedure was analyzed. The cycle of DBR fueled deep insights into the learning processes that emerged through the construction of an artifact, thus deepening our understanding of the multimode and multi-trajectory relationship between theory, artifact construction and social technologies. For sustaining and orchestrating social construction of artifacts by groups of learners, a set of instructional elements emerged, as well as implications for enacting social technology innovations in real-life classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the affordances of social technologies for supporting the construction of a shareable artefact by a group of learners. A qualitative study that captures the use of five different types of social technologies (Facebook, blogs, wikis, Google Documents and Dropbox) in three different classroom settings sheds light on the potentials and challenges of these tools for supporting material exploration, artefact construction and evaluation. Qualitative content analysis of instructors’ field notes, students’ and instructors’ reflections, interviews and focus groups sheds light on the potential of social technologies to transform the activity of learning across a new culture of computational tools. The affordances of social technologies are discussed as well as design principles that need to be followed in these new arenas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on the use of design-based research (DBR) for the development of a framework that grounds the use of social technologies in learning. The paper focuses on three studies which step on the learning theory of constructionism. Constructionism assumes that knowledge is better gained when students find this knowledge for themselves when engaging in the making of concrete and public artifacts. In an attempt to implement theoretically designed learning environments in real-world classrooms, DBR was employed as an overarching framework of inquiry. The three cycles of DBR inquiry provide deep insights into the use of social technologies as social constructionist tools and inform a novel framework for their use. The implementation of the framework is specified along with further implications for researchers and practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work is concerned with the exploration of ideas in the realm of technology for peace, produced by small groups of students working around an interactive tabletop. A collaboration-enforcing tabletop application was used to mediate dialog and collaborative construction of a taxonomy of ideas based on the participants' consensus. The scenarios for discussion concerned the promotion of global peace and the social integration of immigrants in the society. The participants' dialog and interactions were video-recorded and analyzed. The study contributes a systematically developed coding scheme capturing the cognitive and physical elements of problem-based group collaboration around the interactive tabletop. Also, the consistent themes and ideas contributed across the participating groups highlight a number of areas where research could focus in terms of using technology for peace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates how activity theory can help research a constructionist community. We present a constructionist activity model called CONstructionism Through ACtivity Theory (CONTACT) model and explain how it can be used to analyse the constructionist activity in knowledge building communities. We then illustrate the model through its application to analysing the Wiki-supported community associated with a computer game. Our analysis focuses mainly on two perspectives: individual and collective actions, as well as individual and collective mediations. Experiences and challenges from the analysis are reported to demonstrate how CONTACT is helpful in analysing such communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we investigated the social roles that emerged from the users' behaviour and interaction (as opposed to pre-defined formal roles) within a virtual community of massively multiplayer online role playing game. Adopting the social network analysis perspective, we identified and analysed three major social roles with distinct interaction styles and network properties. It was found that core members of the community were players who contributed to the community expansion by providing help and fostering group cohesiveness through friendly social interaction. On the other hand, some periphery members were freeloaders whose sole purpose of joining the guild was only to utilize the guild resource. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper, we study the social network structure of an online discussion board within SeniorNet, an empathic online community for older people. We apply Social Network Analysis (SNA) to analyse the communication patterns and relationships between members of the discussion board. In addition to looking at the structure of the exchanged messages within the discussion board as a whole, we also investigate associations between the communication content and the social network patterns. Our findings show distinct differences between the social network patterns of empathic and non-empathic communications. For example, members are more connected and closer to each other in the social networks that are based on empathic communication compared to non-empathic communication. Additionally our results show that the type of empathic communication (e.g. different kinds of support) is linked to the social network structure within the discussion board. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper reports an investigation of older adults’ needs and preferences concerning online social support. We focused our analysis on seven different aspects of online support: Self disclosure, Deep support, Light support, Community building, Information/Facts, Off topic, and Technical issues. For each aspect we were interested in how older adults perceive this aspect of support, what they think are the similarities and differences of this aspect of support in online settings vs offline settings, and what they perceive are the advantages and disadvantages of communicating this aspect of support online. We did this by conducting detailed interviews with three groups of older adults (31 people in total) with different levels of expertise in using the internet and online communication (older adults who do not use the internet, older adults who use only email, and older adults who participate in online support communities). Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed. Our findings describe older adults’ perception of different aspects of support and identify their motivation for turning to online support and the reasons for any reluctance to do so. Thus, our findings give insight into how online support communities could best be utilized to improve older people’s experience with online support. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Affinity diagramming is a cheap and widely used knowledge elicitation technique in human-computer interaction (HCI). However, empirical methods for evaluating user performance in conducting affinity diagrams have remained relatively static. Despite the fact that often the main value of such affinity diagramming sessions lies in the group-based discussions and debates that take place during their construction, what is being captured is often only the final categorizations (the affinity diagram) rather than the process of constructing them. In this article, we propose the concept of categorization constructionism, which we describe as optimized when affinity diagrams are facilitated in groups that have a considerate input of activity in categorization decision-making. We describe how we used this rule to model the temporal nature found within affinity diagram categorizations as they are constructed. To help us test our approach, we utilized participatory design (PD) sessions in developing three TabletPC-based software tools (CATERINE, SAW, and MATE) that would record, allow manipulation of, and evaluate the organization of affinity constructs over time programmatically with digital inking processes. We then used these tools to conduct an experiment that would explore our concept of measuring constructionistic activity over time in practice through the use of our tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Being one of the most commercially successful entertainment software applications, massively multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPGs) continue to expand in term of the revenue they generate as well as the involvement of users who congregate in their virtual space and form communities around them to support each other. Unlike conventional offline computer games, or networked games with limited numbers of players, MMORPGs are not merely software applications as they are usually seen as a space with complicated dynamics of social interactions. Hence, it is believed that playing these games might cause cognitive overload problems among the players as they have to constantly interact with the game world as well as with other users. We conducted an exploratory study using qualitative methods to explore cognitive overloads in Maple Story, a typical MMORPG. Our results reveal that several types of cognitive overloads emerge during the game playing. While some of these overloads pose serious problems even to expert players, players seem to develop strategies to overcome them. It is found that some forms of cognitive load are actually desirable in order to make the game challenging. We have also created a set of recommendations that can help game developers handle cognitive load problems in MMORPGs. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper presents the findings from a study conducted to explore the current and future use of information visualization (IV) for digital libraries (DL). A series of query techniques and participatory design workshops were employed with the goal of actively involving users in identifying the key characteristics and applications of IV for DLs. The methodology employed, key findings and overall conclusions are presented and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An experiment is reported that compared expandable indexes providing full menu context with sequential menus providing only partial context. Menu depth was varied using hierarchies of two, three and four levels deep in an asymmetric structure of 457 root level items. Menus were presented on the World Wide Web within a browser. Participants searched for specific targets. Results suggest that reducing the depth of hierarchies improves performance in terms of speed and search efficiency. Surprisingly, expandable indexes resulted in poorer performance with deeper hierarchies than did sequential menus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to review the use of makerspaces for educational purposes by building a map that describes recent research in the field under investigation. Design/methodology/approach: The approach adopted in this research includes a systematic review of the literature, based on publications (from 2017 to 2019) through Google Scholar. The development of a coding scheme performed through the Card Sorting technique. Findings: Findings demonstrate that the use of makerspaces in educational contexts can support 21st-century skills; however, further research is sought on the application of makerspaces in formal education. Originality/value: This paper will be useful for researchers interested in constructionism educational methods in conjunction with technology. It can also help in identifying gaps in the literature of educational makerspaces by giving a clear picture of the under-investigated areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers are increasingly exploring collaborative behaviour in complex socio-technical systems through in-the-wild investigations to understand, evaluate and technology. The space configuration and tools available in such activities are crucial for the successful collaboration of a group. This work offers an in-the-wild examination of six groups tackling a design project working in an artifact ecology, a space rich in physical and digital artifacts. We delve into the physical and digital space of each of the groups during a 3-month duration to obtain a rich understanding of their collaborative activities. The aim of this work is two-fold; provide summative narrations of each one of the five models of DiCoT to extract design implications and evaluate the usefulness of DiCoT as an analytical tool for understanding artifact ecologies. Through a rich dataset – interviews, focus groups, reflective diaries, online interactions, and video recordings – we construct a summative description of the group behaviour based on the methodological framework of Distributed Cognition for Teamwork. Drawing on these narrations, we provide design implications on the use of an artifact ecology as a shared space for design activities. Both outcomes are then used to evaluate the usefulness of DiCoT as an analytical tool for artifact implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship among bodily movements, cognitive abilities, and academic achievement in children is receiving considerable attention in the research community. The embodied learning approach is based on the idea of an inseparable link between body and mind in learning, aiming for teaching methods that promote children's active engagement in the classroom. This study implements embodied learning as a part of the classroom curriculum in a real classroom environment using motion-based games. A total of 52 elementary students engaged in embodied learning in-class activities for four months. The data-set included standardized pre-post testing for children's cognitive and academic performance, general learning analytics from games' usage, interviews, and observations from the teachers involved. Findings showed significant effects both on children's cognitive abilities (i.e., short-memory skills) and academic performance (i.e., expressive vocabulary). This article contributes to the educational technology community by providing an example of implementing embodied learning via use of motion-based technologies in a real classroom environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past decade, there has been increasing interest in studying the educational affordances of Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs). Using the KSAVE (Knowledge, Skills, Attitudes, Values, Ethics) 21st Century Skills framework, this paper presents the current state of the art in MMORPGs empirical research from 2010 to 2016, considering the latest overview reported in 2010. This review sought to determine the level of maturity of the body of MMORPGs research and to identify lacks of knowledge, with respect to 10 types of 21st Century Skills. The current work considered 120 research publications and categorized 49 empirical studies according to their research foci and results on one or more types of 21st Century Skills. The results revealed a strong body of evidence suggesting that MMORPGs are spaces in which a variety of 21st Century Skills can be fostered. Yet, most MMORPGs research focuses on the investigation of the communication skill (22% of the skills examined), whilst creativity and innovation as well as problem solving and information literacy are largely unexplored in this context. The discussion focuses on understudied areas in MMORPGs research aiming to advance future inquiry that addresses current challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This exploratory case study aims to examine how students benefit from a multimodal learning environment while they engage in collaborative problem-based activity in a Human Computer Interaction (HCI) university course. For 12 weeks, 30 students, in groups of 5-7 each, participated in weekly face-to-face meetings and online interactions. Students' selfreports and tutor' observations showed that overall students benefited from the multimodal learning environment while they engaged in blended interactions across physical and digital tools and across collocated and networked learning spaces. With respect to tool use, it was found that the downward pointing projector and Facebook were used in all phases of problem based activity, while portable devices for record keeping were mainly used in progress evaluation and reflection phases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collaborative learning encloses a diversity of activities, interactions, and practices. Thus, designing a learning environment, potentially enhanced with technology, to support collaborative learning, is not an easy task. Using an in-class exploration involving four multidisciplinary teams, this research seeks to understand collaborative design activities within “InfoSpace” – an information ecology. That is, a collocated space enriched with a multiple interlinked heterogeneous technologies. The aim of the study is to explore how an information ecology works as an integrated cognitive system, through the lenses of distributed cognition. Through the analysis we constructed a detailed account of the information flow, physical layout and artefact models. We claim that distributed cognition framework can provide a lens for understanding interactions among learners, tasks, and tools in collocated technology enhanced learning environments. Furthermore, the analysis provides valuable insights on how the design of the information ecology supports collaboration and coordination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Massively Multi-player Online Role-playing Games (MMORPGs) have become a popular leisure activity. It has been suggested that the reason for their popularity is that they offer a new ‘third-place’ for people to socialise. However, designing for sociability in these games has been shown to be a challenge. In this article, we discuss the results of an online survey that was directed towards game design researchers and professionals. We then present a subsequent discussion on the results of the survey at a Special Interest Group (SIG) held at CHI 2011. Through analysis of the findings of the survey and the discussion, we propose six requirements that facilitate the design of MMORPGs: In-game Communication, Off-game Communication, Empathy, Grouping and Rewards, World Design, and Designed Relationships. We state that it is not necessary to add all the proposed requirements in the design of such games, but we also caution that a game that does not include any of the requirements presented here cannot belong to this genre. We discuss limitations of this work, and offer future research directions that result from this work. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We aimed to study the characteristics and usage patterns of 3D virtual worlds in the context of teaching and learning. To achieve this, we organised a full-day workshop to explore, discuss and investigate the educational use of 3D virtual worlds. Thirty participants took part in the workshop. All conversations were recorded and transcribed for analysis. Thematic analysis was carried out to identify prominent issues and topics. We found that to fully utilise 3D virtual worlds for teaching and learning, students... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The aim of this research was to investigate age differences and similarities in the use of the social networking website MySpace, to explore potential differences in social capital among older people (users over 60 years of age) compared to teenagers (users between 13 and 19 years of age). We used locally developed web crawlers to collect data from MySpace’s user profile pages, and to quantify any differences that exist in the networks of friends of older people and teenagers. Content analysis was applied to investigate differences in social activities between the two age groups on MySpace, and the way they represent themselves on their profile pages. Our findings show a social capital divide: teenagers have larger networks of friends compared to older users of MySpace. On the other hand, we found that the majority of teenage users’ friends are in their own age range (age±2 years), whilst older people’s networks of friends tend to have a more diverse age distribution. In addition, our results show that teenagers tend to make more use of different media (e.g. video, music) within MySpace and use more self-references and negative emotions when describing themselves on their profile compared to older people. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

There is steadily growing interest in the design and evaluation of digitally enhanced spaces in the real-world where users use, combine, and appropriate different physical and digital tools based on the task at hand. Under the notion of “ubiquitous computing,” researchers have explored tools and theories to analyze, understand, and model users in complex socio-technical systems. Yet, even though theoretical approaches play a significant role in the work of practitioners, there is a general difficulty in applying them, pushing researchers to explore methodological frameworks with clearer guidelines. Using the distributed cognition for teamwork (DiCoT) framework, we study collaboration and communication patterns, physical movement, and social structures of two groups of learners working on a design problem as they evolve over a 3-month period. Through an in-depth investigation, we present detailed accounts of the social and evolutionary models of DiCoT for each group. Our analysis enriches the DiCoT framework by identifying five new principles: social emersion and social circles of privacy for the social model, and continuity, mutual adaptation, and semantics of body for the evolutionary model. This article contributes to HCI research by refining and extending the existing DiCoT framework and elaborating on two dimensions that have previously been under-developed in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article describes a case study which aimed to investigate the strengths and weaknesses of existing user-centered design (UCD) methods for eliciting requirements engineering from older adults. The study involved older people in designing, developing, and evaluating a virtual-garden prototype. The researchers concluded that creativity-oriented techniques could provide valuable contributions toward better capturing older people's design needs.

With the increasing availability of interactive tabletops, researchers and practitioners have the opportunity to expand the learning environment and provide further support for collaboration and reflective conversations around design problems. In this manuscript, we present IdeaSpace, a tabletop application designed to support collaborative design as a continuous and reflective process involving cycles of design and redesign. IdeaSpace allows users to work on a shared project, load digital images and sketches, annotate them using text and audio, record messages and take notes during their collaboration, keep  step by step a record of the design process and share selected artefacts on Facebook. Outcomes from three pilot case studies provide evidence that IdeaSpace can support continuity in the interaction, revisit of information, and reflection across collaboration sessions. Concluding remarks and plans for future work are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The process undertaken by an information seeker, in order to form relevance decisions regarding documents, is defined as “Document Triage.” To better facilitate users’ needs in their triage activities, interactive interfaces have begun to evolve within on-line academic repositories. In order to complement current work on interface design and interaction, and produce custom guidelines to inform the creation of triage interfaces, we examine how interfaces that alter the document presentation and structure affect information seekers’ visual and navigational attention. We present a set of heuristics for both creating and evaluating such interfaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports a study that investigated the occurrences of empathy in online support communities for teenagers. Qualitative content analysis with 400 messages from a discussion board about depression was used to identify how empathy was expressed in the specific online communication. Emphasis was also placed on the comparison of this age group to older people, by comparing the results with those from a previous study on empathy in an online support community about depression for older people. Specifically, the analysis focused on the frequencies of the categories of the code scheme, linguistic characteristics of the communication content, the occurring components of empathy, and the roles as well as activities of the members. From our analysis, we concluded that young people exchanged a substantial amount of empathic emotional communication when participating in an online support community, and they communicated on a more personal level compared to older people, who tended to engage in a more formal communication. In addition, teenagers also showed a high level of understanding but lower level of concern compared to older persons when expressing empathy online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, an online support community for older people is studied, with the aim of developing a taxonomy of social roles based on content analysis and social network analysis. Four hundred messages (posted between August 9, 2007, and February 5, 2008) in an online support community for older people (http://www.seniornet.org) were investigated. The data were analyzed to identify and shed light on patterns of the online functional behavior as well as the social structure of active members. Drawing on the findings, a set of six social roles were identified, defined, and described in depth. The findings showed that the structural positions of online community members were associated with the kind of content these members tended to post. For example, it was found that central members were very likely to give support, whereas members not very well connected were more inclined to post self-disclosing messages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]