Online collaboration

With the increasing popularity of the World Wide Web, end-user applications are moving from the desktop to the browser. More and more applications that we have come to know as desktop applications are now making their way into the web. This has made online collaboration a key aspect for many applications. Collaborative applications like Facebook, Flickr and Google Docs are just an early hint of how we can benefit from users being able to share data. Still, collaborative features are not easy to implement in web applications. Most web programming environments aim at easy user interface creation and persistence, but not for online collaboration and pushing data from one user to another. The Lively Kernel is a highly dynamic web programming platform and runtime environment developed at Sun Microsystems Laboratories. By utilizing the Lively Kernel platform, it is easy to implement desktop like applications for the web using JavaScript. In this paper we summarize the experiences from adding peer-to-peer collaboration into the Lively Kernel. These additions include persistent data storage, communication channels between users and user identification.

This qualitative cross-case study explored the experiences that learners describe within online collaborative groups. The study context was a fully online graduate course on adult learning. The findings suggest that the small online groups demonstrated dynamics and process that are characteristic of individual growth and development and group individuation, which mirror the experiences of face-to-face groups. The results of these two developmental processes led to unsafe learning spaces and opportunities for group members to rework their sense of identity as learners and group members. Implications are presented for the use of these kinds of groups in online educational settings.

We have witnessed a rapid increase in the use of Web-based 'collaborationware' in recent years. These Web 2.0 applications, particularly wikis, blogs and podcasts, have been increasingly adopted by many online health-related professional and educational services. Because of their ease of use and rapidity of deployment, they offer the opportunity for powerful information sharing and ease of collaboration. Wikis are Web sites that can be edited by anyone who has access to them. The word 'blog' is a contraction of 'Web Log' -an online Web journal that can offer a resource rich multimedia environment. Podcasts are repositories of audio and video materials that can be "pushed" to subscribers, even without user intervention. These audio and video files can be downloaded to portable media players that can be taken anywhere, providing the potential for "anytime, anywhere" learning experiences (mobile learning).

Project-based learning engages students in problem solving through artefact design. However, previous studies of online project-based learning have focused primarily on the dynamics of online collaboration; students' knowledge construction throughout this process has not been examined thoroughly. This case study analyzed the relationship between students' levels of knowledge construction during asynchronous online discussions with respect to engagement in project-based learning. Graduate students' online postings in a course that comprised both project-based and non-project learning activities were coded and counted for knowledge construction, teaching, and social interaction moves using computer-mediated discourse analysis. Chi-square analyses found that the instructor's teaching discourse remained fairly consistent during projectbased and non-project learning. Despite this, students' online discussions during project-based learning were characterized by more advanced levels of knowledge construction, where ideas were rationalized and integrated into plausible solutions. In contrast, students' online postings outside project-based learning rarely moved beyond the lower levels of information sharing and idea exploration. Based on these results, guidelines for designing and facilitating online project-based learning are presented and discussed.

This study examined the effect of using a group awareness tool on online collaboration. Furthermore, we examined whether the effect of using a group awareness tool on online collaboration is mediated by group awareness (i.e., students' awareness of their group members' levels of participation). To answer these questions, we determined how often and how long 107 secondary education students used the Participation-tool (PT), a group awareness tool designed to visualize group members' relative contribution to the online collaborative process. Our analyses show that duration of PT use (how long students displayed the tool on their screens) significantly predicted group members' participation in the online dialogue, their participation when writing collaborative texts, equality of participation within the group, and coordination and regulation of activities in the relational space (i.e., discussing the collaboration process with group members). No effect of using the PT on group performance was found. Mediation analyses showed that the effect of using the PT is only partially mediated by group awareness: an indirect effect of using the PT, via enhanced group awareness, on student participation during chat discussions and the collaborative writing process was found.

This study examined students' views of collaboration and learning, and investigated how these predict students' online participation in a computer-supported learning environment. The participants were 521 secondary school students in Hong Kong, who took part in online collaborative inquiry conducted using Knowledge ForumÔ. We developed a questionnaire to assess the students' views of their collaboration aligned with the knowledge-building perspective. We also administered the Learning Process Questionnaire to examine their preferred approaches to learning. The students' online participation in Knowledge Forum was examined using the Analytic Toolkit software. Analyses indicated that students who viewed their collaboration as more aligned with collaborative knowledge building were more likely to employ a deep approach to learning. A structural equation model indicated that the students' views of collaboration exerted a direct effect on online participation in Knowledge Forum and mediated the effects of deep approaches on forum participation. Implications of examining students' views of collaboration for productive online participation are discussed.

Higher education needs to bring students into the practice of cloud based online collaboration such as they will encounter after graduation. A useful introduction starts with data collecting and pooling with Google Forms followed by real time graphing and computations, easily accomplished in the Excel-like Google Sheets. We find students and in-service teachers are very positive about their experience. Here we review the limited literature and describe how instructors can get their students into cloud based online collaboration using spreadsheets and other powerful collaborative options available via Google Drive.

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Need help:  Dealing with Scientific Data in Google Sheets:  Data > Model > Simulation
at https://sites.google.com/view/ssinex/home/dealing-with-data-in-gsheets.

The present paper describes an undergraduate class called "Collaborative and Integrated Design". The subject has just been introduced in the Architecture and Urban Design course at the State University of Campinas, as the last in a series of 10 studios, just before the final design project, which is developed individually in the 11th and 12th semesters. The objective of the class is the development of an integrated architectural and engineering design project by a distributed team, with the support of Information and Communication Technology and with an emphasis on the use of Computer Aided Architectural Design (CAAD). Civil Engineering Graduate students acted as distant team members and consultants for each of the four undergraduate student groups. The class program will be presented. The use of digital resources to support in-class and online collaboration, such as the use of an interactive whiteboard, broadcasting of class assistance, and a collaborative environment, will be detailed. The observed collaboration will be analyzed and student acceptance of the teaching and design approaches will be discussed. Lessons learned considering design management in AEC will also be discussed.

The present paper describes an undergraduate class called "Collaborative and Integrated Design". The subject has just been introduced in the Architecture and Urban Design course at the State University of Campinas, as the last in a series of 10 studios, just before the final design project, which is developed individually in the 11th and 12th semesters. The objective of the

The present paper describes an undergraduate class called "Collaborative and Integrated Design". The subject has just been introduced in the Architecture and Urban Design course at the State University of Campinas, as the last in a series of 10 studios, just before the final design project, which is developed individually in the 11th and 12th semesters. The objective of the

Completion of this dissertation and my doctoral studies as a whole would not have been possible without the support and guidance of numerous individuals. Without their help, I would not have been able to finish this long, very interesting journey. I would like to first thank my dissertation committee chair, Chris Quintana, and committee members Eric Dey, Addison Stone, and Stephanie Teasley for their investments of time and energy into the development of my dissertation, for sharing their expertise, and for their suggestions for improvement throughout this process. I would like to particularly thank Stephanie for her guidance outside of the dissertation process and for guiding my scholarly interest in learning management systems (LMS).

Previous literature on democratic quality of political actors website and on the governance of online communities did not take attention to the role of infrastructure for collective action online.
This paper presents an empirical analysis (based on 50 cases of online creation communities) on how infrastructure governance shape the community generated. First, the paper presents a mapping of online creation communities according to their infrastructure governance. The main axes of order in the infrastructure governance are open versus closes to community involvement in the provision organizing. Then, the other significant axes is knowledge policy which in term of
infrastructure governance influences the level of freedom and autonomy of the collective action in regards to the infrastructure. According to these two axes five models of infrastructure governance resulted: corporate service, university network, representative foundations, mission oriented enterprises, and assamblearian selfprovision.
Second, the research provides an empirical explanation of the governance models which are most likely to succeed in creating large-size collective action in terms of the dimensions of participation and complexity of collaboration.
Infrastructure governance based on closeness to community involvement in the platform provision and for profit strategies generates bigger communities. Instead, open to community involvement and nonprofit generates smaller communities, even smaller if they are informal. Conditions which favor community freedom and autonomy generate smaller communities also, but interestingly, they resulted to be the conditions that increase collaboration among the participants.

New teaching and learning approaches are emerging through the use of technology including online global collaboration. Educators involved in global collaboration forge external relationships with others beyond their immediate learning environment. They modify and adapt the curriculum to include global learning opportunities for their learners. Global collaboration provides opportunities for rich global, cognitive, social, cultural and life-­‐changing experiences to their students. Online global collaboration broadly refers to geographically dispersed educators that use online technologies to learn with others beyond their immediate environment to support curricular objectives, intercultural understandings, critical thinking, personal, social and ICT capabilities. This paper will report some preliminary findings from an investigation into the perceptions of K-­‐12 educators who facilitate global collaborative learning. Data were collected through semi-­‐structured interviews that were then themed to identify the key affordances and inhibitors to online global collaboration. The paper will provide recommendations for global collaboration in teacher education.

The use of webcam images in online interaction poses several challenges to research in the fields of language learning and intercultural communication. This article brings the results of an investigation about the role of webcam images in online interactions of students when learning foreign languages in teletandem by using instant messaging software such as Skype, OoVoo or Windows Live Messenger. It starts with an overview of the theoretical grounds of the study in terms of images, gestures, nonverbal language and teletandem. Data were collect by means of a questionnaire responded by 22 students and analyzed from a qualitative, interpretive paradigm of educational research -hermeneutic phenomenology. The research questions were: (a) What teletandem practitioners see in their own images during conversation? (b) What teletandem practitioners see in their partners' webcam images that come to them? and (c) To which image window do partners look when they talk with and when they listen to their partners? Results of the analysis show the impact of webcam images over online intercultural communication and learning, vocabulary learning, control of self-appearance, making technical adjustments, control of one's own reactions during communication, and what students look at their partners' body, reactions and surroundings.

Collaborative pedagogies are partially popularized in online learning environments because text based online discussion technologies are often available as a software package that requires very little bandwidth and are relatively cheap and easy for students to access technically. ...

Message ferrying is a networking paradigm where a special node, called a message ferry, facilitates the connectivity in a mobile ad hoc network where the nodes are sparsely deployed. One of the key challenges under this paradigm is the design of ferry routes to achieve certain properties of endto-end connectivity, such as, delay and message loss among the nodes in the ad hoc network. This is a difficult problem when the nodes in the network move arbitrarily. As we cannot be certain of the location of the nodes, we cannot design a route where the ferry can contact the nodes with certainty. Due to this difficulty, prior work has either considered ferry route design for ad hoc networks where the nodes are stationary, or where the nodes and the ferry move pro-actively in order to meet at certain locations. Such systems either require long-range radio or disrupt nodes' mobility patterns which can be dictated by non-communication tasks. We present a message ferry route design algorithm that we call the Optimized Way-points, or OPWP, that generates a ferry route which assures good performance without requiring any online collaboration between the nodes and the ferry. The OPWP ferry route comprises a set of way-points and waiting times at these way-points, that are chosen carefully based on the node mobility model. Each time that the ferry traverses this route, it contacts each mobile node with a certain minimum probability. The node-ferry contact probability in turn determines the frequency of node-ferry contacts and the properties of end-to-end delay. We show that OPWP consistently outperforms other naive ferry routing approaches.

In this article Annie Abrahams gives a short personal, yet critical overview of her always collaborative and often participatory artistic practice. Based on her experiences she tries to formulate some general preconditions for it to be successful. She finds that an awareness of hardware and software influences, clear and open protocols, familiarisation with the technology, an active role and a hospitable environment for the participants are obligatory to allow them to enjoy an aesthetics of attention and trust, where their choices and behavior count.

ABSTRACT: Whether mathematical problem solving is done face-to-face or through computer-mediated communication, as long as there are multiple participants with their respective approaches, procedures and assessment methods, there is a need for participants to resolve their differences, whether through negotiation, argumentation or some other interactional activity to initiate, maintain and conclude their collaborative problem-solving activity. When this collaborative problem solving is conducted in the quasi- ...

In this paper we analyze decision-making through asynchronous computer mediated discussion. The theoretical framework of our study understands discussion as communication in which the students contribute to the construction of a common opinion by taking positions. Position taking is described by applying Positioning Theory. In this study students were engaged in a small group discussion in an online environment in which they were required to debate on their proposals and take a vote at the end. We provide quantitative and qualitative analyses of their discussion and those issues that describe the winning proposals. The analyses show that the quality of the original proposal is indeed closely related to winning. However, our results indicate that students can influence the success of the decision process by taking an active part in the discussion. The positions the students take in the decision-making discussions seem to be first order self positions deliberately assumed by the discu...

Designing a group study enables students to develop critical thinking, effective team work; appreciation and respect for other views, techniques and problem-solving methods by promoting active learning environment. The purpose of this quantitative study examined the effects of online collaboration on the pre-service teachers’ mathematical problem solving attitude. Specifically, the study examined the effects of group working to the mathematical word problem solving tasks alone. Forty-two pre-service teachers enrolled in the study which were divided into three groups: Synchronous online (n=12), face-to-face (n=15) and individual (n=15). Students in each group were required to solve four ill-structured problems under problem solving sessions over a six-week period. It is used a quantitative analysis of data. To measure the change in problem solving attitude, a pre and post-test problem solving attitude questionnaire administered to measure attitude change. The results indicate that, whether synchronous online or face-to-face group based problem solving processes resulted with more positive attitude than individual study. It is also revealed that students' problem solving attitudes were increased in all groups, however, F2F group students' showed positive higher difference than those SO and IND students.

An investigation was carried out to determine the extent to which evidence of collaborative learning could be identified in students' textual interactions in an online learning environment. The literature on collaborative learning has identified a range of behaviors that characterize successful collaborative learning in face-to-face situations. Evidence of these behaviors was sought in the messages that were posted by students as they interacted in online work groups. Analysis of students' contributions reveals that there is substantial evidence of collaboration, but that there are differences between conventional face-to-face instances of collaborative learning and what occurs in an asynchronous, networked environment.

Online collaborative editor" is a node.js based browser application that provides real time collaborative editing of files and improves pair programming. Current real time editors fail to provide simultaneous viewing and editing of files within the server and results in a complex version controlling system. Such systems are also vulnerable to deadlocks and race conditions. This project provides a platform for real time collaborative editors, which can support simultaneous editing and viewing of files and handle concurrency problems by using locking mechanism. The experiment results showed that node.js platform provides good performance for collaborative editing.

This study focuses on the reliability of intra-group peer assessment (PA) of the collaboration processes in a wiki. First-year university students (N = 659) were subdivided in groups of 8 to create wikis. They were to assess their group members on four criteria (contribution, discussion, sources, and social). The main research question focused on the reliability of this intra-group peer assessment. Intraclass correlations were calculated and the results showed reliabilities with an intermediate to large effect size for the overall score. The main conclusion is that peer assessment is reliable and that it is feasible to implement in the context of online collaboration in a wiki environment. This leads to the practical implication that a web-based peer assessment tool can support instructors to manage computer-supported collaborative learning activities in a wikienvironment.

Online collaboration tools can provide an opportunity to enhance community building while at the same time motivate students to actively participate in their learning. In this investigation an online learning environment was designed with the aim of promoting clear and transparent communication between higher education students to enable fair and equitable teamwork. The environment was designed with a combination of authentic project work, self-regulated tasks and reflective activity through the use of Bloggers. An evaluation of the learning environment was conducted through both qualitative and quantitative survey instruments.

The Virtual Math Teams (VMT) environment has recently integrated a wiki component into its text chat and shared whiteboard system. The wiki component serves a number of purposes, such as summarizing synchronous small-group interactions and sharing the results among groups in an asynchronous knowledge-building community. The VMT project is part of an effort to investigate group cognition--the accomplishment of problem-solving and knowledge-building tasks by small groups, particularly in online, distributed contexts. This paper is an experience report on the use of the VMT system with middle-school, high-school and junior college math students, with masters-level information science students and with research teams. It synthesizes findings from the analysis in many published case studies of VMT system usage and describes recent extensions to the system, integrating a social-networking portal, a knowledge-building wiki, a group-cognition chat room and a shared whiteboard with history, ...

The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of two peer assessment methods on university students' academic writing performance and their satisfaction with peer assessment. This study also examined the validity and reliability of student generated assessment scores. Two hundred and thirty-two predominantly undergraduate students were selected by convenience sampling during the fall semester of 2007. The results indicate that students in the experimental group demonstrated greater improvement in their writing than those in the comparison group, and the findings reveal that students in the experimental group exhibited higher levels of satisfaction with the peer assessment method both in peer assessment structure and peer feedback than those in the comparison group. Additionally, the findings indicate that the validity and reliability of student generated rating scores were extremely high. Using Wiki interactive software and providing an online collaborative learning environment to facilitate peer assessment added value to peer assessment.

In 2014, music creation in the cloud is defined by access to sophisticated production tools aided by a number of social networking options. This enables interaction between global communities of musicians across transcultural and transnational spaces. Examining practices within contemporary music production enables a new perspective on remixing and studio jamming filtered though the lens of crowdsourcing. There are multiple challenges associated with this mode of work, and while acknowledging them, this paper argues that there are numerous benefits of engaging in crowdsourcing within the context of Internet-based music production. Drawing on my creative practice and work with three online systems (Audiotool, Blend, Ohm Studio), I analyse the various characteristics of production practices in the cloud engaging international collaborators in a transcultural, transnational space. By examining phases of user-instigated collaborative asynchronous project development, this paper traces how shifts away from traditional studio settings have redefined notions of remixing and jamming, and how new technologies have impacted on interaction between users of remote music collaboration software. In doing so, it makes broader points about how social networking combined with cloud-based music production technologies can lead to new and alternative approaches to music production in international contexts.

Worker and workplace empowerment have been enduring topics in psychological research. Recently, due to the advancements in technology and communication, new forms and types of work and organizing have emerged and challenged the traditional understandings of power and empowerment. Open source software (OSS) communities are one example of such new types of organization and collaboration. OSS communities have been celebrated as democratic, participatory and egalitarian settings where people voluntarily, freely and collaboratively develop software to serve their needs as well as the needs of others. In this paper we show that OSS communities indeed nurture empowerment in several senses. However, we also show that OSS communities pose several challenges to empowerment. As an example, we analyze numerous usability interventions in OSS development, in which usability practitioners have offered their expertise to OSS projects. We show that the usability practitioners have been empowered in certain cases and senses, but that they have also encountered numerous challenges as regards their empowerment. Moreover, we argue that critical theories on empowerment provide additional, valuable insights on empowerment in OSS development as well as elsewhere. We propose a comprehensive framework on empowerment, suitable for studies on empowerment in OSS communities as well as in other online communities and forms of distributed or online collaboration.

Many adults express a preference for learning in small groups but often find their group experiences frustrating and dissatisfying. This tension is increasingly evident in online learning, as collaborative methods become more popular within these environments. The purpose of this study was to develop a better understanding of the emotional dynamics and processes reflected in this tension within online collaborative environments. Our findings suggest that online learning groups display behaviors that reflect two powerful, alternating, cyclical fears. On the one hand, the groups act as if they perceive a definite threat to individual identity. Such actions, however, seem to precipitate a corresponding fear of alienation and disconnectedness among group members. Getting stuck in this cycle of alternating fears may account for the lingering dissatisfaction adults have with group learning.

In 2014, music creation in the cloud is defined by access to sophisticated production tools aided by a number of social networking options. This enables interaction between global communities of musicians across transcultural and transnational spaces. Examining practices within contemporary music production enables a new perspective on remixing and studio jamming filtered though the lens of crowdsourcing. There are multiple challenges associated with this mode of work, and while acknowledging them, this paper argues that there are numerous benefits of engaging in crowdsourcing within the context of Internet-based music production. Drawing on my creative practice and work with three online systems (Audiotool, Blend, Ohm Studio), I analyse the various characteristics of production practices in the cloud engaging international collaborators in a transcultural, transnational space. By examining phases of user-instigated collaborative asynchronous project development, this paper traces how shifts away from traditional studio settings have redefined notions of remixing and jamming, and how new technologies have impacted on interaction between users of remote music collaboration software. In doing so, it makes broader points about how social networking combined with cloud-based music production technologies can lead to new and alternative approaches to music production in international contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether there is a cultural gap in student perceptions of online collaborative learning, and the changes over time of student perceptions, motivation and learning strategies due to the actual involvement in a collaborative e-learning environment. Methodology/Approach: A parallel e-learning environment for a first-year university course was implemented for a Flemish group (n=217) at Ghent University and a Chinese group (n=165) at Beijing Normal University. Student perceptions of the online collaborative learning environment and their motivation and learning strategies before and after the e-learning experience were measured. Findings: The findings show that the Flemish group perceived the online collaborative learning environment more positively compared to the Chinese group. However, Chinese students' motivation and learning strategies changed significantly towards a way that is more in line with a socialconstructivist learning approach after the online collaborative learning experience. Practical implications: The current results indicate that students from different cultural contexts perceive online collaborative learning environment differently. Specific cultural adaptations in elearning design could be considered when an e-learning environment is to be implemented crossculturally. Originality/value of paper: This study can help both Chinese and Western instructors become aware of different perceptions of online collaborative learning and be more supportive to the students.

The integration of technology in higher education has been swiftly changing since 2000. This study, which focused on issues related to technology integration in higher education, included 24 interviews done in 15 universities. The inter- views documented an accelerated pace of change as well a wide range of innova- tions. Relying on the idea that technologies used in hybrid and online learning require specific functionalities for effective collaboration, the study explored the features required from these technologies to enable more flexible online learning environments. According to study results, the primary reasons why universities chose to integrate technologies were not specifically for educational purposes. Consequently, the technologies used are not necessarily interactive or instruc- tional. Even though many changes have taken place, such as retooled legacy LMSs or MOOC platforms, more up-to-date and educational technology features are still required for collaborative and interactive online education environments.

As engineering, science, and industry in general become increasingly global, online collaboration has become a normal part of the professional's workday. It has, however, not been integrated into the US educational system. In this paper we show how Google Sheets, a part of Google Drive can be used to familiarize students in beginning courses with the practice of online collaboration and enhance their computational spreadsheet skills.

Several approaches to collaborative filtering have been studied but seldom have studies been reported for large (several million users and items) and dynamic (the underlying item set is continually changing) settings. In this paper we describe our approach to collaborative filtering for generating personalized recommendations for users of Google News. We generate recommendations using three approaches: collaborative filtering using MinHash clustering, Probabilistic Latent Semantic Indexing (PLSI), and covisitation counts. We combine recommendations from different algorithms using a linear model. Our approach is content agnostic and consequently domain independent, making it easily adaptable for other applications and languages with minimal effort. This paper will describe our algorithms and system setup in detail, and report results of running the recommendations engine on Google News.