Cognition-oriented Facilitation and Guidelines for Collaborative Problem-solving Online and Face-to-face: An in-depth examination of format and facilitation influence on problem-solving performance

During the Covid-19 pandemic, more guidelines were created to teach people how to facilitate meetings online, but few were designed from a cognition-oriented perspective. Additionally, solving complex problems is essential in many occupations. However, the influence of online and face-to-face discussion formats on the performance in complex problem-solving tasks is unclear, even though remote working has become common over the past several few years. Hence, this study aims to answer two research questions: (a) Does problem-solving performance differ between online and face-to-face meetings? and (b) Does facilitation improve problem-solving performance when different formats are used? We conducted experiments with 40 groups using a 2 × 2 factorial design, which were controlled for both facilitation and format. Each group comprised two randomly selected participants, and each problem-solving discussion lasted between 1.5-2 h. The obtained evidence showed that format can influence the performance of balancing intercorrelated factors in a complex scenario, but it does not affect the performance of achieving a predefined goal. Instead, it we found that facilitation is helpful for achieving a predefined goal. Based on the results obtained, we propose future design directions for problem-solving centric computer-supported cooperative work systems from a cognition-oriented perspective. © 2023 Owner/Author.

Learning Science through Cloud Gamification: A Framework for Remote Gamified Science Learning Activities Integrating Cloud Tool Sets and Three-Dimensional Scaffolding

In today's world where virtual interaction is becoming more and more important, remote collaborative problem solving has become a promising teaching strategy. The motivation to promote collaborative science learning and the depth of group discussions are key research issues. The use of gamification strategies has the potential to facilitate remote synchronous science instruction. In order to promote learners' collaborative science problem-solving skills, it is critical to design appropriate scaffolds and provide a guiding framework for teachers to integrate cloud-based interactive tools to design remote synchronous gamification activities. Based on years of research on scaffold-based gamified teaching, this study proposes a framework for gamified teaching activities that integrates a cloud-based toolset and a three-dimensional scaffolding (cognitive scaffolding, peer scaffolding, and metacognitive scaffolding). The framework can be used as a reference for science teachers to combine cloud tools for remote gamified teaching and for researchers in this field.

Do you know your partner's personality through virtual collaboration or negotiation? Investigating perceptions of personality and their impacts on performance

Interpersonal skills, including collaborative problem solving (CPS) and negotiation skills, are essential in many aspects of the 21st century. With the rapid development of technologies in the past decades, it has become increasingly prevalent for collaborations, negotiations, and communications to occur virtually. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the shift from in-person interactions to virtual interactions. On the other hand, personality traits, enduring characteristics of individuals that are largely stable over time, affect a wide variety of human behaviors, including how people interact with each other. In this study, we investigated the extent to which team members' personalities, the heterogeneity in personalities among team members, and the interaction processes in virtual tasks impacted performance on these tasks with limited exposure to personal information such as appearance and voice. In addition, we examined how one perceived the team partner's personality and how people tended to project their own personality onto partners during the short-term virtual interactions. Findings suggested that higher heterogeneity in personality between partners was associated with better team negotiation performance, while it was not associated with collaboration outcomes in the CPS task. Implications of the findings and limitations of this research were also discussed. • We study how team members' personalities and the interaction processes impact performance on virtual tasks. • Relationships between personality, interaction processes, and performance differ in collaboration and negotiation contexts. • People tend to project their own personality traits onto their online partners during short-term virtual interactions. • Teams that are more heterogeneous in personality show better negotiation outcomes. [ FROM AUTHOR]

Do you know your Partner's personality through virtual collaboration or negotiation? Investigating perceptions of personality and their impacts on performance

Interpersonal skills, including collaborative problem solving (CPS) and negotiation skills, are essential in many aspects of the 21st century. With the rapid development of technologies in the past decades, it has become increasingly prevalent for collaborations, negotiations, and communications to occur virtually. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the shift from in-person interactions to virtual interactions. On the other hand, personality traits, enduring characteristics of individuals that are largely stable over time, affect a wide variety of human behaviors, including how people interact with each other. In this study, we investigated the extent to which team members' personalities, the heterogeneity in personalities among team members, and the interaction processes in virtual tasks impacted performance on these tasks with limited exposure to personal information such as appearance and voice. In addition, we examined how one perceived the team partner's personality and how people tended to project their own personality onto partners during the short-term virtual interactions. Findings suggested that higher heterogeneity in personality between partners was associated with better team negotiation performance, while it was not associated with collaboration outcomes in the CPS task. Implications of the findings and limitations of this research were also discussed.

Mapping primary students’ mobile collaborative inquiry-based learning behaviours in science collaborative problem solving via learning analytics

This article reports on a study focusing on understanding how primary students conducted collaborative inquiry-based learning (CIBL) supported by a mobile app during the COVID-19 pandemic when all lessons were conducted online. Learning analytics (LA) were used to map students’ behaviours in CIBL activities. One class with 35 students in Grade 4 participated in this study. Log data was collected and analysed using learning analytics with process mining techniques to understand groups’ CIBL behaviours in a mobile learning environment. The findings revealed high- and low-performance groups’ common and different features of CIBL behaviours. The research findings can help inform both teachers of making pedagogical refinement in the CIBL activity design, and researchers of developing scaffolding tools at different phases of CIBL on the mobile learning app to enhance students’ collaborative problem-solving skills. © 2022