Workshop Description
Workshop content
Topic: Automatic and semi-automatic methods and tools providing indicators and multiple visualizations and views. This workshop will focus on Interaction Analysis (IA) tools that analyse asynchronous and content oriented communication and collaboration tools, such as forums, discussion lists, wikis, and blogs.
Currently, there are IA tools that provide a variety of IA indicators such as participation and interaction oriented indicators, content analysis indicators, and mixed approaches. There are also IA tools that provide interface alternatives in CMC tools (e.g. alternative reading views in forums). Moreover, there are IA tools that are directly linked to a specific learning environment (e.g. a specific forum) or others that are independent of them; recently some methods are designed so as to be open to every kind of interaction data.
Goal: To achieve a consensus on IA tools’ basic functionalities and to identify categories of IA indicators for different purposes; to discuss more intensively the research design methods applied so as to study the use of these IA tools (by teachers, moderators, students), as well as their effects in learning activity processes.
Description of Format and Activities Planned
The format of the workshop is based on 'question axes” oriented organization with hands-on activities and lively discussions rather than a mini-conference or symposium like format. The working methodology for the workshop is made up of the following phases and steps.
(I) Pre workshop phase:
(i) The position papers submitted are reviewed by three members of the organising committee to provide feedback from different angles
(ii) The organizers synthesize position papers in groups, and raise additional challenging questions structured in a series of axes.
(iii) A social environment is set up by organizers so as to facilitate open discussions among workshop participants previous to the workshop day.
(iv) IA tools, data corpus, as well as previous discussion reports on workshop issues are exchanged between workshop registered participants.
(II) Workshop phase:
(i) Introductory Panel: Organisers make a short presentation and pose key questions while workshop main participants provide answers to the questions on the base of their own work. [This means that the “main participants will not fully present their 'papers'. It is supposed that all participants have to study the position papers during the pre-workshop phase.]
(ii) Hands on activities with/around Pcs (small groups of two max three participants per PC): During the hands on activities, the groups members have to answer questions on structured sheets. Moderators synthesise groups answers and reflections with the help of the participants after a fixed period of time (40 min). The participants will work on the same data corpus agreed during the pre-workshop phase
(iii) Round tables are settled, each managed by a Moderator (from the Workshop organising Committee). The tables have A-1 sheets and markers. A brief overview of each of topics is done, raising the challenging questions. The ideas are written down in the sheet. When the sheet is full, they are stuck on the wall. In addition two interactive blackboards will be used.
(iv) Synthesizing Panel: (a) Moderators present the conclusions to the audience. (b) Open questions with all participants are expected to be risen. The coordinators summarize the conclusions with the help of the group.
The previous three activities (maximum duration of each activity ~45 minutes) will be repeated at least two times (e.g. morning and afternoon session) during the workshop day.
(v) Concluding Panel: Organisers with the contribution of main and additional participants synthesise orally the main conclusions of the workshop, while then they discuss on the continuation of workshop activities (groups collaborations, Journal special issue publication, etc)
III) Post-Workshop phase:
Final conclusions are structured and uploaded in the workshop website to be shared with CSCL2009 community. Moreover the community of interest set up in the social environment for the workshop will be kept and extended with people interested in the topics, exchanging tools, data corpus, and related papers.
Expected Outcome and Contributions
Outcome:
- Know and Test the available tools
- Define needs on IA Indicators
- Define IA tools requirements
- Identify complementarities (this is a core output), as well as improvement and enrichment points.
Contributions:
- Incite to exchange/share: data corpus, tools, methods
- Encourage more profound collaborations between partial groups of attendees and stimulate the growth of research, understanding, utilizations of IA tools.