This working group will address how computers can support collaboration within the competitively oriented setting of higher education. Topics considered will include the following: (1) Collaborative relationships: among students; mentor/mentee; hierarchically managed; human/computer.(2) The types of computer support given for these relationships will include computer as resource, as focus and as tutor. (3) Overarching concerns include curricular focus (group dynamics vs. technical skills), accountability for individual work, real versus contrived settings, and influences of other fields. The goals of this working group will be to develop a summary document, assemble an on line bibliographic resource, and develop at least two exemplars of computer supported collaborative settings.
1. The Problem
Collaborative projects are the norm in industry and academics, especially projects that involve computing. Team work skills are considered by the National Science Foundation to be essential for work in science, mathematics, engineering and technology in the 21st century[3]. Yet there is an inherent conflict between developing collaborative skills in students, especially at the undergraduate level, and assessing student achievement in traditional academic settings (e.g.. grading.)
The problem to be addressed by this working group is how we can effectively support collaboration without compromising the need to assess individual student performance. To restrict the problem, I propose that we focus entirely on Higher Education, that is, address these concerns at the undergraduate and masters level, perhaps drawing from research and experiences at either the K-12 or doctoral level.
Collaboration can be interpreted in a number of ways, as can the notion of computer supported learning. Depending on the make up and interests of the working group, the following issues could be addressed:
1.1 What is Collaboration?
Collaboration can occur within the following relationships. Needless to say, the collaboration types described below overlap with each other.
A. Collaboration among students : students in pairs or small groups can do single lab activities, homework assignments, or large projects together. Collaboration may take the form of a study group, a lab team, or a project team. In some classroom settings collaboration that seems natural to students (for example doing homework together) may be viewed by an instructor as plagiarism.
B. Collaboration between mentor and mentee : this relationship may exist between a faculty member and a student (or group of students), between a more senior and more junior student, between support staff (tutors, lab assistants, teaching assistants) and students. The most obvious place for this type of collaboration is in research projects.
C. Hierarchically managed settings : these are settings in which members have specific roles, responsibilities and supervisors. In classic software engineering courses this setting is often contrived to illustrate issues that will emerge in the "real" world. Research or development projects (via independent study, for example) provide another example on this type of collaboration.
D. Student, computer collaborations : The Artificial Intelligence community draws a fine line between computer as tool and computer as collaborator. At what point do intelligent tools no longer assist, but become true collaborators in an endeavor? While this relationship not should be the focus of this working group, it should be considered.
1.2 What Is Computer Supported Learning?
Computer Supported Learning can take place in the following ways:
Computer as resource : the computer is used as a source of information and as a tool with which to develop and present a project. For example, students can use the Web to do research, a word processor to write a document, a presentation tool to develop a final project. Specialized software such as CAD tools or mathematical modeling tools are also examples.
Computer as focus : the computer is used to build and test systems in order to learn computer science concepts. For example, students implement alternative solutions to problems (such as sorting) and compare results between teams. Student develop large software systems by distributing the work among team members.
Computer as tutor : unlike using the computer as resource, students are explicitly instructed in particular skills by the computer. For example, students might participate in an on-line tutorial in order to master low level technical skills required for a project.
1.3 Overarching Concerns
Collaboration as an integral part of computer science education is evidenced by the number of papers related to the topic in the last year of SIGCSE publications[1,2,4,5,6]. Issues that were raised in these papers include the following:
Curricular concerns : What is the goal of the collaborative effort: to learn about group dynamics, to learn particular technical skills, to learn to do research, or to accomplish a research or development objective.
Accountability and Assessment of Work : If students are encouraged to work in a truly collaborative setting, how do you assess individual contribution and achievement. How do you expose students to the sometimes subtle distinction between collaboration and plagiarism? How do you create an environment where the load is distributed fairly, balancing individual strengths and weaknesses. Do all members have to achieve the same thing (be assessed by the same criteria?)
Real versus contrived settings : How you manage collaboration can depend upon whether the collaboration is real or contrived. Are the collaborators genuinely supporting one another, what happens when a key member drops out of a team, or when outside pressures force some team members to do less than their share?
Outside Influences : Collaboration is not limited to computer science education. Extensive research has been done in business, research and educational settings outside our field. Relevant perspectives should be considered by the working group.
2 Working Group Goal:
I envision three outcomes of this working group:
A. A paper that addresses these issues (and others that emerge) in depth: A summary, if you will, of the state of affairs.
B. A bibliography of resources that provide insight and examples of collaboration. These would include published papers, books and teaching aides as well as on-line support materials such as course outlines and syllabi posted on the World Wide Web.
C. A resource of examples of collaborative settings. I would like to see us develop at least two exemplars of how computer supported collaboration can be done in computer science. For example, one might be a scenario for encouraging students to form student groups complete with advice on how to evaluate student work, another might describe how to support undergraduate research.
References:
1 Daigle, R, Doran, M and Pardue, J, "Integrating Collaborative Problem Solving Throughout the Curriculum", SIGCSE Bulletin, Vol 28, Num 1, February 1996.
2 Finkle, D. and Willis, C. "Computer supported peer learning in an introductory Computer Science course" SIGCSE Bulletin, Vol 28, Special Issue, 1996.
3 National Science Foundation. "NSF 96-139 -- SHAPING THE FUTURE: New Expectations for Undergraduate Education in Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology", NSF Report of EHR/DUE, October 3, 1996
4 Prey, J. "Cooperative learning and closed laboratories n an undergraduate Computer Science curriculum" SIGCSE Bulletin, Vol 28, Special Issue, 1996.
5 ViCao, N., Laribi, A., Leonard, M. Parchet, O. and Zellweger C. "Integrating CSCW in a cooperative learning environment to teach information systems". SIGCSE Bulletin, Vol 28, Special Issue, 1996.
6 Yerion, F. and Rinehart, J. "Guidelines for Collaborative Learning in Computer Sciences", SIGCSE Bulletin, Vol 27, Num 4, December 1995.