Cooperative Learning Environments - Effective Support for Distributed
Teams
by Martin Wessner and Jörg M. Haake
A newly established interdisciplinary work group at GMD's Integrated
Publication and Information Systems Institute in Darmstadt, Germany, investigates
support for cooperative learning in small distributed teams. The current
prototype of the Cooperative Learning project (CLear) provides a virtual
learning world with rooms for individual learning and working, special
cooperative rooms for group work and for presentations. First encouraging
evaluation results from a course at Darmstadt University of Technology
demonstrate potential benefits of the virtual learning world and suggest
possible extensions for the future.
In today's dynamic business world, lifelong learning is a vital precondition
of success. Often, the necessary knowledge to fulfill job requirements
is not available from books, but is created in organizations and companies
during the progress of the work. As a general goal, a method is required
to utilize this distributed knowledge, storing, retrieving, presenting
and using it on the job.
A special challenge is the exploitation of the potential of cooperation
in producing, comprehending and handling this information. The CLear project
deals with the development of cooperative learning environments that aim
at supporting such learning processes by providing a seamless transition
between work and learning. Our focus is on adult learners who want to gain
knowledge and build skills in a task-oriented manner and in small groups.
In the CLear project, we take different learning dimensions into consideration:
- synchronous and asynchronous learning
- distributed and co-located learning
- individual and group learning.
With the proper assistance from the cooperative learning system, all
phases of individual and cooperative learning can be supported. To reach
this goal, we take a learner-centred, interdisciplinary approach: in CLear
there is strong cooperation between psychologists, instructional designers,
educational and computer scientists. Based on a model of cooperative learning
and a hypermedia data model we identify learning scenarios and analyse
them with respect to possible assistance by a cooperative learning environment.
We use the metaphor of virtual rooms containing learners, trainers/tutors
and learning material in the form of hypermedia documents. Within these
rooms, the cooperative learning environ-ment offers functionalities which
support individual and group learning. This infrastructure enables the
cooperative acquisition of knowledge and skills largely independent of
time and space.
The actual prototype is developed with the COAST framework which allows
quick development of cooperative applications. It supports asynchronous
learning (individual exercises and self-study), synchronous interactive
presentation (briefings, demonstrations and presentations), and synchronous
cooperative learning (group work, discussion).
Figure: A screenshot showing the virtual learning world and the auditorium.
To integrate and support these phases, CLear provides virtual rooms
for individual learning and working and special group work rooms and lecture
halls. Learners are connected to each other and the teacher by audio/video
and data networks. They can create and edit documents individually or cooperatively
in their virtual individual rooms, in group rooms or in public places,
ie an auditorium. For example, they can jointly manipulate, annotate and
link hypermedia objects such as texts, graphics or scribbles.
We are currently working on the smooth integration of audio/video communication
into the CLear environment. By refining the user and group model we intend
to achieve simple handling of access rights. Through creating awareness
of rooms and situations we want to improve storage and retrieval of knowledge.
More information can be found at: http://www.darmstadt.gmd.de/concert
Please contact:
Martin Wessner - GMD
Tel: +49 6151 869 954
E-mail: martin.wessner@gmd.de
Jörg M. Haake - GMD
Tel: +49 6151 869 918
E-mail: joerg.haake@gmd.de
