Iouri A. Bogoiavlenski, University of Petrozavodsk, Russia
Pavel Slavik, Czech Technical University, Czech Republic
1. Collaborative learning - principles and state of art
Collaborative learning has been topic of research for some tens of years. As it marked in fudamental work of David Johnson & Roger Johnson "What We Know About Cooperative Learning at the College Level" (http://www2.emc.maricopa.edu/innovation/CCL/whatweknow.html) "Over 120 studies have compared the relative efficiency of cooperative, competitive, and individualistic learning on individual achievement. While the first was conducted in 1924, 70% have been conducted since 1970." During this period of time the colaborative learning has become both field of research and field of applications. The folowing text gives an overview of the current state of art covering the most important aspects of collaborative learning. There are many aspects that should be discussed. The first group of these aspects deals with the educational side of the problem. The second group deals with general problems of cooperation in the computer environment.
1.1 Educational aspects of collaborative learning
Collaborative learning, also known as cooperative learning, can be defined as the instructional use of small and medium-sized groups (up to 50 participants/group) through which students work together to maximize their own and each other's learning. Collaborative learning forces students to talk to each other, to draft common responses to questions, to work through differences of opinion, and to write conclusions clearly. Thus, collaborative learning provides a practical way to highlight communication skills within the curriculum. The use of collaborative learning and CMC tools may be motivated by economic considerations as well as by educational goals. As with any economic analysis, one must consider both potential benefits and potential costs.
One of the most recent source for Collaborative Learning Systems (CLS) is Ursula Wolz, Jacob Palme (co-chairs), et. al. Report of the ITiCSE'97 Working Group on Computer Mediated Communications (CMC) in Collaborative Educational Settings, Working Group Reports and Supplemental Proceedings SIGCSE/SIGCUE ITiCSE'97, Uppsala, Sweden, 1997, pp.51-69 http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/almstrum/iticse/iticse-by-topic.html The report covers with good bredth and depth most important issues of Collaboration Learning concepts implementation in modern distribited computer environments. Some important citations from the report follows below till point 1.2. In educational environments that stress collaboration, the use of computer-mediated communication (CMC) tools can be a source of support as well as a challenge. A taxonomy of tools for communication and collaboration in education will be described in further text. Many sides of the issue should be considered, including the roles of teachers and students, problems that can arise and potential solutions, goals and issues of assessment, and software design issues.
A good initial background to colaborative learning can be found at:
http://www2.emc.maricopa.edu/innovation/CCL/CCL.html
There is also a research report available that discusses (besides other problems) the problems connected with the introduction of CL. The report has been elaborated at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and it is available at:
http://www.wpi.edu/Stratplan/Reports/project.html
For those who never came accross with CL and its practical use there is a report available discussing the personal experience with introduction of CL. The report is available at:
http://www.sytsma.com/facjrn/fsuartcl.html
This document contains links to other interesting documents dealing with the use of CL for Science education (including the courseware development and use - in Malaysia).
There exist many guidelines and recommendations how to introduce this sort of learning in various fields. The task of our group should be to modify these guidelines and recommendations for the field of computing.
1.2 Goals of research
The results of investigations mentioned can be divided into two
parts:
- organizational and psychological aspects of cooperative
learning (CL)
- hardware and software aspects of CL.
The first group of questions could be of course solved in detail by psychologists and other experts from related fields. Our goal should be more modest: to specify some specific topic of the computing education that should be taken into account when designing strategy for the application of CL in the field. Nevertheless there has been performed an extensive research round the world from which some inspiration can be taken.
1.3 Future work needed in the area
The information obtained from the resources mentioned in the paragraph above should be used for the decision what kind of courseware (and software) will be used for the project purposes. This decision should include some kind of methodology how to use CL in Computing education. The question is if the learning process should be based on the shared use of learning modules or if the CL should have a more general character.
By the more general character could be understood for example a possible modification of a learning approach used in the course of Software Engineering given at CTU Prague. In this course a group of students should work on a software project. This work includes the role assignement to each member of the team, elaboration of a work schedule (with milestones etc.), design of a communication among team members etc. The application of CL in such a course would require a special groupware software and also its use will be different from the use of courseware and similar kind of software. Getting such an experience will be very beneficial for graduates as this kind of the work organization is used in enterprises where they will work after their graduation.
So, we demonstrate, that a most important task is organisation of collaborative lerning environment in respect with Curriculum Subject Areas, courses under study and type oflearning activity (labs, seminars, etc). For Software Engineering course the CL approach looks both naturally and necessary. For other courses it may not be so evident and may require serious additional efforts from teacher.
The other group of questions that should be solved concerns the hardware and software. In the initial material from CTC two systems were mentioned that can be used for writing educational modules in the CL environment: WISDEN and Ceilidth (see in further text). There exists a lot of highly specialized CL systems for specific applications. As an example we can give CoVis (Learning Through Collaborative Visualization - Northwestern University) and Archaeological Consortium (Glasgow University). According to materials appended, the two institutions acquired a lot of practical experience with various forms of CL.
Only little attention has been paid until now to technological issues used in the CL environment. The technologies used try to replace face-to-face classroom. These new technologies include videoconferencing, audioconferencing, computer conferencing, Internet classes, and computer based training. In the case when these technologies are used to reach geographically dispersed students, minimal attention has been paid to the effectivenes of each technology and to combination of technologies to education.
The integral part of the research should be the development of some guidelines that would evaluate the use of CL in the distant learing framework. The use of CL in this environment makes it more available to students that could never come in contact with the CL in their schools
1.4 Theoretical Aspects of Collaborative Learning
It is necessary to have in mind that CL has some theoretical backgrounds. One of them is CSCW (Computer Supported Coooperative Work) paradigm. CSCW deals with the problem how to design systems to support work of a group of users and how to understand the effect of technology on their work patterns. CSCW could be considered as a sort of extension of HCI (Human Computer Interaction - where the principal axis is psychology-computing). In the case of CSCW the principal axis is sociology-computing. One major area within CSCW is the provision of computer systems to support group working. These products are often called groupware. A typical product of this type is Lotus Notes (will be mentioned in the further text).
This type of system will have an effect on the work groups within an organization and upon the organization as a whole. There are many sociological and anthropologigal aspects (besides many others) that influence the design and implementation of groupware. One of topics that should be taken into account is the group dynamics. It makes very difficult to predict how a particular group will behave in particular situation. Also organizational factors can make difficult to use or break groupware systems. Any computer system may interfere with the existing authority and social relationships within an organization.
Nevertheless the groupware systems of all kinds are widely used in practice and their number is steadily increasing. Their use in education will prepare students for practical applications after their graduation. This means that the use of groupware in the field of CL should not be limited to special systems developed just for the educational purposes but also systems of general nature should be used.
When we go back to the idea with the Software Engineering course in the CL environment, in last months a system called BCSW is more and more popular for various applications in the field of CSCW. Information (and the system itself) can be obtained at:
http://www.gmd.de
Such a system provides "electronic" support for activities that have been carried out with traditional means (in an isolated environment or in paper form etc...).
This system has been investigated and tested for some simple applications. Due to its flexibility and user-friendliness the system is suitable for some applications in CL. Besides this investigation also other investigations took place at CTU. As it has been given in the first part some systems for CSCW were tested. This is related to one aspect of Colaborative work in the field of education: if students should be acquainted with professional tools they will use after their graduation in practice. Besides experiments with BCSW we started to experiment with a system for CSCW in CAD. The system was developed in Germany and its name is TOBACO.
http://www.egd.igd.fhg.de
Two or more designers that work in geographically distant locations can share the working space and they can create in parallel a design of a product. The question is how students should be taught methods and skills for CSCW on real software used in practice. These questions include a lot of methodological aspects.
When we turn our attention to the problem of "pure" CL environment we found a good example of a series of tools that were developed in certain context. These tools were developed at Georgia Institute of Technology in EduTech (this is a multi-disciplinary research organization commited to enhancing science through innovative technology)
(http://www.cc.gatech.edu/aimosaic/edutech).
The research there is concentrated at the development of environments which promote active, student-driven learning. One of the aspects the research is focused onto is is the design. Here students often work with incomplete data and information and this kind of problems is solved in a collaborative environment. The result of activities described are systems CaMILE (Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning Environments at EduTech) and Web-SMILE. There have been also other systems developed like PABLO (Problem-Based Learning Online) and others.
http://www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/edtech/CaMILE.html
http://www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/people/Faculty/mark.guzdial/WStour
There are many tools that allow to animate algorithms like XTango, POLKA etc. Algorithm animation plays an important role in Computer Science education.
1.5 New Trends in Collaborative Learning
In this part the effort will be dedicated to comparison of various aproaches that are used in the field of Collaborative learning. As it has been already stated, there are many systems that have been developed in last years in the field. It should be taken into account in which time and in which environment these tools were developed. The time factor influences the software tools that were at disposal at the time the development started (newer tools are mostly based on Java - or at least they allow to integrate Java in some form into educational modules developed). Also technology available plays an important role - the newer systems allow the use of teleconferencing and on line video features. As for the environment where the development took place: it is very important if the tools created were developed in the context of other tools (that support another part of an educational process) or if the system developed is the stand-alone one.
The investigation in last weeks led to the conclusion that a big part of educational software (new one) used for distant education is based on the use of Java applets. A good example of the wide use of Java applets is a distant university in Hagen - Germany (http://www.fernuni-hagen.de) where a lot of teaching modules is based on their use. Currently some student projects are running at CTU Prague by means of which an experience with this sort of tools for the creation of educational modules is being gathered.
New advances in computer technology made possible to use them also in the field of education. One of these new phenomena is virtual reality in the web environment. Currently there are several ongoing projects that investigate the possibilities of the use of virtual reality for education - especially in the university environment (the distant learning form). The name for this type of universities is VIRTUAL UNIVERSITY. The majority of the projectsuse MUD (Multi-User Dimension) or MOO (MUD Object Oriented) text-based environments. Some of these implement classrooms for general education.
One of the advanced projects in the field is theU project run by Contact Consortium in the USA (http://www.ccon.org). TheU is a virtual university to be built in three dimensions using the new virtual worlds technology. TheU would look like a real, visual campus with buildings, green space, meeting spots, and a whole range of services. The difference with theU is that you will see people (represented as digital avatars - virtual persons) moving around campus, interacting, learning and helping others to learn.
The technologies that are planned to use include: AlphaWorld, VRML and voice conferencing systems. What is interesting is the planned initial curriculum: theU would teach people how to live in digital space. The technology used is linked up with many new questions concerning the communication in the new environment. Mastering new communication skills should be also one of topics taught in the developed standard curriculum.
2. Survey of Existing Collaborative and Semi-autonomous Learning Environments in Computing and other fields
2.1. Collaborative Systems
2.1.1 Concepts
One of the fudamental work on CL is:
David Johnson & Roger Johnson "What We Know About Cooperative Learning at the College Level"
(http://www2.emc.maricopa.edu/innovation/CCL/whatweknow.html)
Good theoretical psychological background for Collaborative Learning and Coached Apprenticeship may be found, for example in works of Alan Lesgold with co-authors.
Gabrys, G., Weiner, A., & Lesgold, A. (1993).
Learning by Problem Solving in a Coached Apprenticeship System. In M. Rabinowitz (Ed.), Cognitive Science Foundations of Instruction, pp. 119-147. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Lesgold, A. (1993).
Information Technology and the Future of Education. In S. Lajoie & S. Derry (Eds.), Computers as Cognitive Tools (pp. 369-383). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Lesgold, A., Katz, S., Greenberg, L., Hughes, E., & Eggan, G. (1993).
Extensions of Intelligent Tutoring Paradigms to Support Collaborative Learning. In S. Dijkstra, H. P. M.
Krammer, & J. J. G. van Merrienboer (Eds.),
Instructional Models in Computer-Based Learning Environments. Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Instructional Models in Computer-Based Learning Environments, Twente, the
Netherlands, July 1-4, 1991 (pp. 291-311). NATO ASI Series F. Berlin:
Springer-Verlag.
Psychological backgrounds may be also found in:
Lawrence W. Sherman, Professor
COOPERATIVE LEARNING IN POST SECONDARY EDUCATION: IMPLICATIONS
FROM SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY FOR ACTIVE LEARNING EXPERIENCES
A presentation to the annual meetings of the American Educational Research
Association, Chicago, IL, April 3-7, 1991. [revised, 20 January, 1996
http://www.math.purdue.edu/~ccc/
Motivation of Cooperative Learning may be found in:
Improving Student Learning with Group Assignments
David McDonald
Lake Superior State University
Group assignments in a cooperative learning environment can improve student learning. This paper discusses the use of cooperative learning in a junior level electronics course where the students work in groups on both complex classroom problems and laboratory projects. The discussion outlines the types of assignments and presents an evaluation of the use of the cooperative learning method in this course. Although the paper focuses on the application of cooperative learning in an electronics course, the method and the types of assignments are appropriate for any problem solving course.
The considerable restructuring and re-engineering activities of industry are grounded in deemphasizing tasks and focusing instead on purpose and process.[1] This emphasis on process has resulted in empowered work teams, with some teams even including peer review that affects pay.[2] The increased use of teamwork means that students' teamwork and communication skills are extremely important and need to be developed in college.
http://FrE.www.ecn.purdue.edu/FrE/asee/fie95/2b5/2b53/2b53.htm
Useful Web Links:
http://www2.emc.maricopa.edu/innovation/CCL/coolsites.html
Computer Supported Collaborative Learning:
http://cica.cica.indiana.edu/cscl95/
A lot of useful materials:
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF COOPERATION IN
EDUCATION, IASCE
http://www.math.purdue.edu/~ccc/
2.1.2 Some main sources
One of the most recent source for Collaborative Learning Systems (CLS) is:
Ursula Wolz, Jacob Palme (co-chairs), et. al.
Report of the ITiCSE'97 Working Group on CMC in Collaborative Educational Settings, Working Group Reports and Supplemental Proceedings SIGCSE/SIGCUE ITiCSE'97, Uppsala, Sweden, 1997, pp.51-69
http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/almstrum/iticse/iticse-by-topic.html
Some citations from the Report:
Overview of collaborative software used in education
Traditional conferencing software
Web-based conferencing software
HyperNews: http://union.ncsa.uiuc.edu/HyperNews/get/hypernews.html
COW: http://thecity.sfsu.edu/COW2/
Same-time messaging software like IRC
Same-time video and audio
CU-SeeMe: http://cuseeme.cornell.edu/
http://www.cuseeme.com/
Combined same-time and different-time software
ICQ (I Seek You): http://www.mirabilis.com/
MessageBoard: http://www.ichat.com/
MUD (Multi User Dungeons, Multi User Dimension) systems
http:// www.yahoo.com/Recreation/Games/Internet_Games/MUDs_MUSHes_MOOs_etc_/
Collaborative software with special educational support
EIES2 asynchronous conferencing software: http://eies.njit.edu/
WebCT (Web Course Tool): http://homebrew1.cs.ubc.ca/webct/
Virtual High School: http://www. concord.org/
Multi-User simulations
Multi-User word processing
Multi-User information organizers
Netscape Calendar: http://www.netscape.com/comprodannounce/dss_cale.html
3. Virtual Learning Environments - Survey of Popular Packages
There are many software packages on the market for implementing virtual learning environments. Some of them are very expensive to buy. Typically such software provides multi media components and support for same-time and different-time collaboration. Some also support traditional so-called programmed education, which is quite the opposite of collaborative teaching. Some of these packages may be used for collaborative education too, and for management of courses containing both collaborative and non-collaborative segments. Some Web-based educational software environments for customized design, delivery, and enhancement of educational and training courses delivered on the WWW are:
Virtual_U: http://virtual-u.cs.sfu.ca/vuwebl
WebCT (Web Course Tool, URL: http://homebrew1.cs.ubc.ca/webct/
Another good source is www report on research project
"Evaluation of Collaborative Classroom Tools: Groupware" done by Clarence Yong and Christie Buchanan under Direction of Dr. Cathy Beise at CSIS Department, Kennesaw State College,
http://csis3.kennesaw.edu/~cyong/index.html
If we consider Collaborative Learning in a bit more wide context as a kind of collaborative activity, then may be useful received in the report the following abbreviated list of Collaborative Environments:
AOCE: Apple Open Collaboration Environment
Contact: Patrick A. Holleran, Gursharan s. Sidhu, Apple Computer Inc.
Platf.: Macintosh
Class: Groupware toolkit and environment.
Abs.: Designed to provide a computing architecture and environment that supports collaboration. By providing resources such as directory services, store-and-forward messaging, collaborative toolkits and programming interfaces for developers, security features, and connectivity to other collaborative or communication protocols and services. A set of APIs (application program interfaces) and software modules that enables applications to communicate.
Ref.: (Coppola 1993; Sidhu et al 1993)
Argnoter: Argument noter
Class: Meeting support software for a meeting room system (CoLab).
Argumentation SpreadSheet for proposals.
Abs.: For presenting and evaluation of proposals. Three distinct phases: proposing, arguing, and evaluation.
Ref.: (Stefik et al 1987)
Assisting Computer
Class: Environment with groupware functionality's. (CW integrated in a larger system.)
Abs.: Part of a system designed to have better knowledge on tasks, users and the system itself. The module is called Support for Cooperation and has two parts: The activity assistant and The organizational knowledge base
Ref.: (Hoschka 1991)
Boardnoter
Class: Meeting support software for a meeting room system (CoLab).
Abs.: Large public shared whiteboard for free-style sketching.
Ref.: (Stefik et al 1987)
Caucus
Contact: Camber-Roth, a division of Aule-Tek, Inc. 1223 Peoples Avenue, troy, New York 12180. Phone: (518)273-0983, Fax: (518)276-6380, Email: info@aule-tek.com Platf.: PC/AT, PS/2 using Xenix, Unix, VMS, Workstations (HP, Sun, DEC)
Class: Conferencing system for LAN or modem.
Abs.: Records discussions as they progress, helping you track information and activity. Track who has read the items and made response to them. Search for any phrase or word. Access over LAN, Phone lines. Users may send private messages to each other. Caucus organizes your input as on-line group meetings or private messages.
Ref.: (Opper 1988), info@aule-tek.com,
CAVECAT: Computer Audio Video Enhanced Collaboration And Telepresence
Contact: Marilyn Mantei, Computer Science Department, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1A4
Class: Media space system. Virtual meeting rooms and shared editing.
Abs.: Was a three-year project to investigate how the combination computer groupware and audio/video technologies could be combined to enhance collaboration at a distance. The media-space part of the project was based on EuroPARC's RAVE (having been implemented by two of the same architects). The system supported a small group of 10 offices and laboratories in a single building. One focus of the project was combining computer mediated activities, such as shared writing or drawing, with shared personal presence through the media space. Another was means of supporting groups which are distributed over more than two sites. Establish video connection by dragging an icon representing a person into the room. Glance button, conference button. Walktrough or spatial metaphor. The follow on to CAVECAT is the Ontario Telepresence Project.
Ref.: (Bly et al 1993; Mantei et al 1991)
Cognoter
Contact: Collaborative Laboratory on Xerox Park
Class: Meeting support software for a meeting room system (CoLab).
GDSS. Used to prepare presentations.
Abs.: Used in CoLab Is in many ways similar to Think-Tank, Free-style and NoteCards, but multiuser. Organizes a meeting into three distinct phases: Brainstorming, organizing and evaluation.
Ref.: (Ellis et al 1991; Rodden 1991; Stefik et al 1987; Tatar et al 1991)
CoLab
Contact: Collaborative Laboratory at Xerox Park
Class: Meeting room system. With a large electronic whiteboard, WYSIWIS-syst.
Abs.: The first "WYSIWIS (what you see is what i see) system", support a face-to-face-meeting with different types of meetings with various meeting support software: See Argnoter, Boardnoter, and Cognoter.
Ref.: (Rodden 1991; Stefik et al 1987)s. 337 (Cook et al 1991)
Detail:
The Colab was developed at Xerox PARK for supporting face-to-face meetings among small groups of people between 2 to 5 person. The system uses a dedicated room with three networked workstations with bit-mapped displays mounted on tables around a large wall mounted display. A video network allowed the output from any display to be projected onto the Liveboard or onto another display. Three tools were developed for the Colab, all of which support multiple concurrent users. Boardnoter is a freehand sketching tool which provides the users with pens, erasers and telepointers. Cognoter is a tool for producing outlines for documents with annotations. Users may type words and phrases and position them in a shared window. These fragments may then be organized by repositioning, subgrouping, and linking with arrows to describe relationships between ideas. Argnoter can be regarded as an "Argumentation Spreadsheet" for organizing and evaluating proposals. It articulates the arguments related to a position and makes explicit unstated assumptions behind those arguments. It also allows a meeting to maintain several hypotheses simultaneously, reducing problems of "ownership" of ideas. The Key for Colab is WYSIWIS - What You See Is What I See. It is important that participants can see where all the participants are. The purpose of WYSIWIS is to allow private, as well as public, editing windows and to allow each user to chose where to place their public windows on their display.
Collaborative Management Room
Contact: Univ. of Arizona
Class: Meeting room system, GDSS.
Ref.: (Nunamaker et al 1991)
Collaboratory
Class: Groupware tool for scientists. ISDN based.
Abs.: Project. Multimedia tool for idea-generation, project-management, information sharing
Ref.: (Wilson 1987)
Conference Toolkit
Class: Application sharing system.
Abs.: Supports multimedia, real-time conferencing between users on shared applications. Allows both to integrate standard applications in a conference environment, and to develop "conference aware" applications. It is based on a concurrent object-oriented scheme. Part of MULTIWORKS (MULTimedia Integrated Workstation) an ESPIRIT-II project
Ref.: Bonfiglio et al 91 i Bowers og Benford s.63
COPE
Contact: Univ. of Strathclyde, Colin Eden (UK) 41-552-4400
Platf.: DOS
Class: Meeting room system.
Abs.: A facilitator manually collects issues and concerns from a group and enters these data into the facilitator workstation. Modeling tools are applied to these data to assist the group to understand their meaning.
Ref.: (Watson 1992)
CSILE: Computer-Supported Intentional Learning Environment
Contact: Peter Rowley, Onitario Institute for Studies in Education.
Class: A collaborative hypermedia system for education.
Abs.: "The goal of the CSILE is to build:
a) an instructional theory driven by cognitive science research into collaborative learning processes and expert knowledge organization,
b) a collaborative educational hypermedia system. The system has been used in classrooms for the past six years, supporting learning for students in grades one to thirteen as well az adults. CSILE supports deep understanding through a)'s cognitively reflective model of learning;
c) encouragement of students to contribute to the social constructions of each others ` knowledge;
d) Knowledge-building environments that facilitate incremental integration of student's existing knowledge with new information via connective frameworks;
e) support for teachers to monitor the evoulution of students' knowledge in the database."
Ref.: Demo at CSCW'92
CSRS: Computer Supported Collaborative Review System
Contact: Philip Johnson (johnson@hawaii.edu). Collaborative Software Development Laboratory, Dept of Information and Computer Sciences, U. of Hawaii. (CSRS has its own page on the Web)
Platf.: Client/server. Unix/X-windows/Ethernet. C++ database back-end serving multiple Lucid Emacs client front-end interfaces.
Class: Software Review Environment.
Abs.: CSRS is a system implementing a novel data and process model to support formal technical review of software artifacts. Virtually all products of review are created and manipulated in an on-line, hypertext environment. This enables useful computational services that lower the cost of review. Most importantly, CSRS is highly instrumented, which allows novel, empirical investigations into the fine-grained behavior and outcome of review. For example, it is possible in CSRS to determine the amount of time individuals spend reviewing a single function to within two minutes of precision. CSRS is being used for laboratory investigations into formal technical review, and technology transfer is currently in initial stages.
Ref.: Philip Johnson, comp.groupware. (Johnson, Tjahjono 1993; Johnson et al 1993a)
DecisionWeb(TM)
Contact: Pal Danyi (danyi@lucy.tgi.bme.hu), Dept. of Information Engineering, Technical University of Budapest, Muegyetem rkp 3,
Budapest, H-1111, Hungary
Platf.: DOS, MS Windows and Motif are under development.
Class: GDSS, Decision Conferencing.
Abs.: DecisionWeb is for groups of decision makers situated on geographically distributed locations. Using the software, the solving process of a decision problem can be made more efficient by facilitating the communication of the decision makers on Internet instead of face-to-face meetings. DecisionWeb also gives a decision support framework which is always supervised by a facilitator, and may be supported by a decision analyst. The new idea is combining the rich Internet facilities with the structured process of computer-based decision support. Otherwise, DecisionWeb can be attached to other Decision Support Systems as an information management tool. The easy-to-use windows environment can be controlled by a mouse.
Source: Dr Pal Danyi, Groupware'94 Conf. and Exhibition
DIVA
Contact: Michael Spenke, GMD, spenke@gmd.de
Platf.: Unix, X, OSF/Motif, Common Lisp/CLOS
Class: Virtual office environment supporting communication, cooperation and awareness.
Abs.: DIVA is a novel environment for group work which may be viewed as a prototype replacement for the standard graphical user interface desktop. Motivated by the trend towards integration within groupware, this virtual office environment provides smoothly integrated support for communication, cooperation, and awareness in both the synchronous and asynchronous modes of work. In order to utilize the skills that people have acquired through years of shared work in the real offices, DIVA is modeled after the standard office, abstracting elements of physical offices required to support collaborative work: people, rooms, desks, and documents. DIVA unites in a single interface many of the key facilities needed by distributed working groups. Synchronous communication is provided by establishing video and audio conferences over standard network connections. Cooperation is supported by integrating shared applications developed with the GINA application framework into the virtual environment.
Ref.: (Sohlenkamp 1994)
ftp: (for papers only) ftp.gmd.de
DOLPHIN
Contact: Joerg Haake, Norbert Streitz
IPSI - Integrated Publication and Information Systems Institute
GMD - German National Research Center for Computer Science, Dolivostr. 15,
D-64293 Darmstadt, Germany
{haake,streitz}@darmstadt.gmd.de
Platform: UNIX, SUN, Parc Place Visual Works.
Class: Electronic Meeting Room System, Meeting Support Software, Hypertext/Hypermedia, Document Conferencing, GDSS, Local and Distributed Shared Workspaces.
Abstract: DOLPHIN is a fully group aware application designed to provide computer support for different types of meetings: face-to-face meetings with a large interactive electronic whiteboard with or without networked computers provided to the participants, extensions of these meetings with remote participants at their desktop computers connected via computer and audio/video networks and/ or participants in further remote meeting rooms also provided with an electronic whiteboard and networked computers. DOLPHIN supports the creation and manipulation of informal structures (free hand drawings, handwritten scribbles) as well as formal structures (e.g. hypermedia documents with typed nodes and links) and their coexistence and transformation. Hypermedia is used in DOLPHIN in several ways: as a means to organize the information used in a meeting, as a means to organize the collaboration process, and as a means to integrate external information. Special emphasis is put on support for the different phases of collaborative work: pre-, in-, and post-meeting phases. The hypermedia documents produced in DOLPHIN thus capture the results of a meeting and allows its further use in subsequent stages. It is planned to use DOLPHIN in a setting where a number of meeting rooms and offices are coupled by an ATM infrastructure in order to create "Virtual Meeting Environments".
EVA
Contact: Hans Altenhofen, UIMS, Inc., 1590 La Pradera Drive Suite 12, Campbell, CA 95008, (408) 866-4600
Class: Groupware engine or toolkit.
Abs: Provides an C++ based API for integrating groupware features into an already existing application developed in C++. EVA provides three forms of feedback.
*Lexical feedback: represents any feedback in a groupware application that is only seen by a single user, e.g changing of the font size of the display by a user.
*Semantic feedback: represents feedback that is displayed to all users (WISYWIS)
*Database feedback: is where some underlying activity by the application requires the updating of the display of the application users, e.g notify user if a variable changes in the database (e.g. a certain stock price rise or fall to a certain price).
Source: Hans Altenhofen: Newsletter to comp.groupware,
Multi-User GINA
Contact: Michael Spenke, GMD, spenke@gmd.de
Platf.: Unix, X, OSF/Motif, Common Lisp/CLOS
Class: Groupware toolkit
Abs.: The GINA application framework was originally designed to support the development of single user applications with a graphical user interface. Slight modifications enabled GINA to serve as a generic framework for multi-user applications with a replicated architecture as well. In GINA, command objects are used to encapsulate all user actions. Cooperating copies of a multi-user GINA application communicate by exchanging command objects, so the same command which is executed locally is also executed remotely by all participating copies of the application. Optimistic concurrency control is used in order to provide very fast local feedback. Conflicting user actions are detected by the use of virtual time stamps and are resolved by reordering the conflicting commands using a selective undo/selective redo mechanism. Multiple coupling modes - from strict WYSIWIS to complete decoupling - are provided within GINA by constraining the types of commands that are broadcast.
Ref.: (Berlange, Genau 1993)(Spenke 1993)
ftp: (for papers and single user version only) ftp.gmd.de
GroupIE
Contact: Tom Ruedebusch (tom@ira.uka.de), University of Karlsruhe,
Germany
Platf.: UNIX workstations
Class: Groupware Toolkit.
Abs.: GroupIE (Group Interaction Environment) provides generic development and runtime support for cooperative applications in a distributed computing environment. Single-user objects have been augmented with an interaction context towards team objects. A formal language has been developed to specify coordination constraints. The basis of the implementation is Smalltalk-80 that has been extended to Distributed Smalltalk. In a bootstrap-approach, GroupIE has been implemented employing its own team objects and coordination language.
Ref.: (Ruedebusch 1991a)
GroupKit
Contact: Mark Roseman (roseman@cpsc.ucalgary.ca), Dept. of Computer Science, Univ. of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 1N4,
(403) 220-6015.
Platf.: Unix X
Class: Groupware Toolkit.
Abs.: GroupKit is an on-going research project. GroupKit is a C++ toolkit for building real-time groupware conferencing applications (such as shared drawing tools, group writing systems, group support tools, etc.). GroupKit also supports several features motivated by groupware "human factors" work, including overlays to support gesturing and annotation, flexible registration mechanisms to support group processes, etc. The current version runs on Unix/X using the Tcl/Tk toolkit available from UC Berkeley. GroupKit includes the tcl-dp sockets library also done by UCB. (For information on obtaining Tcl/Tk, read the comp.lang.tcl FAQ).
Ref.: (Roseman , Greenberg 1992) Demo at CSCW'92 , Saul Greenberg
(saul@cpsc.ucalgary.ca)
ftp: The latest version of the software will always be available for ftp from "cpsc.ucalgary.ca". (IP-address is 136.159.2.1).
The file is /pub/roseman/groupkit-1.0.tar.Z
GroupSystems (or. TeamFocus)
Contact: Ventana, (US) 602-325-8228, SYSTEM@Ventana.COM
Platf.: DOS
Class: Meeting room system. GDSS.
Abs.: Based on work done at the University of Arizona's Business School. Each group member are provided with a workstation (Notebook computers and wireless LANs are supported). All members can type in ideas and thoughts at the same time. Then the system supports organisation and evaluation of the input. Is also sold by IBM as TeamFocus. Includes both a collaborative outlining tool called GroupOutliner and a multiuser editor called GroupWriter.
Ref.: (Kirkpatrick 1992; Nunamaker et al 1991; Valacich et al 1991))
HIGHEND
Contact: H.-G. Pagendarm (Deutsche Forschungsanstalt fuer Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V., DLR, Bunsenstr. 10, 37073 Goettingen, Germany)
Platf.: Sun/X
Class: Collaborative Visualization Workplace for Aerodynamics
Abs: A co-operative visualization system developed at DLR (German Aerospace Research Center) with focus on collaboration in aeronautics research. Two broadcasting systems are coupled for mutual data traffic, allowing collaboration on graphical primitives, supported by audio and video.
Ref: (Pagendarm , Walter 1993)
HP SharedX
Platf.: Unix X
Class: Application sharing system.
Abs.: Available for HP workstations and X terminals call HP SharedX. It allows multiple users to interact with X based applications over wide area networks (including serial lines and ISDN) as though they were in the same office. Only the "sender" of the application need the HP SharedX software, "receivers" only need an X capable display. A single user license lists for $495US with substantial discounts for multi-user licenses. See also shX
Ref.: (Rodden 1991)UnixWorld, May1992, page 33-37.
HyperCourseware
Contact: Dr. Kent L. Norman, Department of Psychology, Univ. of
Maryland
(310) 405-5924, Fax (301) 314-9566,
Email: kent_norman@umail.umd.edu
Class: Electronic classroom.
Abs.: Prototype. A system of interlocking programs and files that serves as an electronic infrastructure for classroom and distal learning. It serves to create on a computer network what had previously been in notebooks, on the blackboard, and in textbooks. From the workstation the students have access to the course syllabus, lecture notes, assignments, previous exams and grades, a seating chart, and a class roster with digitized color pictures of the students in the class. From this display they can click on an option with a mouse to that information. The instructor has the same sort of displays, but has the privilege of reading and writing information to the student's files.
Ref.: (Norman 1990; Norman ? Lindwarm 1993)
http://www.lap.umd.edu/hcwFolder/HCWov.html
IBM Person to Person
Contact: IBM, http://www.hursley.ibm.com/p2p/, p2p@vnet.ibm.com or on CompuServe (GO IBMP2P)
Platf.: OS/2 v.2.0 or 2.1 (Versions for Windows, AIX (in beta) and Macintosh, all of which will interoperate, will be developed).
Communications links now supported are TCP/IP, NetBIOS, async modem, ISDN, SNA. The Windows versions offers voice support over ISDN.
Class: Application sharing, entry-level video sharing,whiteboarding and file transfer over the net.
Abs.: Allows multiple up to 8 participants to connect their workstations over any mix of platforms and communications links and share information in real time. Person to Person (P2P) contains several applications:
* Chalkboard : A shared, 2 plane drawing surface. The background can be loaded with images, text files or captured application window images and the foreground plane can be drawn on by all call participants.
* Clip: System clipboards across a call are linked allowing "Cut" on one machine and "Paste" on any other (across any of the supported comms links). Supports DDE conversations. DDE and Clip work cross-platform.
* Talk: A simple shared text message utility which can be used to keep meeting minutes or communicate when a telephone is not available. Messages typed by anyone in the call are displayed in each person's Talk window.
* Video: Point-to-point. An ActionMedia II card is required for video capture but slow-scan video can be displayed on a workstation with no special hardware. Video is supplied but is not required.
* High Quality Stills: ActionMedia II users can capture and enhance stills from the adapter. These images can then be used with chalk-board or clip in a P2P call.
* Address Book: Set up nicknames for those you call. The address book stores lists of people you call and hides their network connection details from you after you have initially added them.
* Call Manager: The main P2P application which lists calls in progress and listens for incoming calls from others. This application must be running before any other P2P applications can be used collaboratively. P2P is available in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Swedish, Norwegian and Japanese. The product uses a development API which will be made available shortly.
Source: (Salamone 1993), Simon Phipps, IBM UK Laboratories Ltd
Information Lens
Contact: Thomas W. Malone, MIT
Class: Message system, semistructured messages, rule-based agents.
Abs.: Gives the users the ability to specify rules that automatically file or re-route incoming messages.
Ref.: (Ellis et al 1991; Malone et al 1986; Rodden 1991; Wilson 1987)
Inforum
Platf.: Macintosh
Contact: MacVONK USA (macvonk@applelink.apple.com) (215) 660-0606;
f(215)668-4360.
Class: Conference system.
Abs.: "Inforum assists office communications and the decision making process. Unlike Email, it facilitates the on-going communication between members of the office by organizing, streamlining and documenting the meeting process. With Inforum, people use their computers to participate in on-going subjects from their desktop. It enables them to participate when they want to and in the privacy of their own office."
Ref.: (Allen 1993)
LINCKS: Linkoping Intelligent Communication of Knowledge System
Contact: lincks@ida.liu.se. Lin Padgham, Ralph Ronnquist. Dept. of Computer and Information Sciences (IDA), University of Linkoping, 581 83 Linkoping, Sweden.
Platf.: Unix, X Windows (Sun [Os4, Solaris], Dec[Stations, OSF/1], IBM RS6000, Linux, HP-UX, SGI IRIX, SCO Unix, PC (386).
Abs.: LINCKS is an object-centered multi-user database system developed for complex information system applications where editing and browsing of information in the database is of paramount importance. The focus is on sharing of small information chunks which combine to make up complex information objects used by different users for different purposes. The information chunks are semi-structured in that they contain one part which is well-structured to facilitate addition of A.I. processing within the system, and one part which is unstructured and suitable for management by the user.
Some of LINCKS interesting features are:
* Multiple users - LINCKS is a multiuser database system.
* A hypertext-ish X-windows based user interface to the database.
* Composite objects - although all objects are built up of small pieces, the user interface presents these as single `composite objects', allowing editing over the entire composite object using an Emacs-like editor.
* Database history - the LINCKS system maintains information regarding the history of objects and actions within the system. Object history is maintained at both the single chunk and composite object level. Past versions of objects can be accessed and reactivated.
* Alternative views - LINCKS allows a user or application developer to interactively define alternative views on the underlying database objects. This is particularly useful in applications where the same information is to be used for different purposes or by people in differing roles which require a different composition and display.
* Information sharing - LINCKS provides an easy way for users to share database objects or for one user to share information across all of her/his accessible objects. This is done by linking objects into composition objects. Thereby, any changes to that object by one user will result in updates to all compositions which have that object as an component.
* Parallel Editing Notification - As LINCKS is a multi-user system and allows information sharing, this leads to possible conflicts. Consequently, the LINCKS system maintains a list of objects being edited and issues warnings when parallel editing occurs.
* Tutorial - The system contains a simple interactive tutorial to illustrate the basic ideas and capabilities of the system.
LIZA
Class: Groupware toolkit.
Abs.: Offers building of shared workspaces in electronic meetings. Includes an intelligent agent named Liza. When Liza joins a session, a picture of an intelligent looking android is displayed, indicating to the group that Liza is participating.
Ref.: (Ellis et al 1988; Ellis et al 1991; Gibbs 1989; Roseman,
Greenberg 1992)
Lotus Notes
Contact: Lotus Corp.
Platf.: Works across differing platforms and networks: An organization can connect with Notes across NetBios, Mac and OS/2 using Appletalk, TCP/IP, IPX/SPX, X.25, SNA and Banyan Vines netw. protocols. Notes 3.0 will run Windows , OS/2, and Unix as server . Clients can be OS/2, Windows, Macintosh and Unix/Motif, Sun, Solaris 1.1 and RS/6000. Macintosh clients uses the Publish/Subscribe features supported by System 7. Next Notes ports are: Solaris 2.X, SCO, HP, AIX and Novell NLM.
Class: Tailorable tool with rule-based agents, object orientented information sharing and exhange. "Distributed" databases (replicated).
Semistructured messages.
Abs.: Lotus is attempting to create a de-facto software standard for workgroup computing, aiming to make Notes a software `platform'. Notes is a radically taylorable tool, and a software environment for workgroup computing. Notes integrates multimedia Email, distributed databases, and database management (a full-text server-client environment designed for generality and flexibility, not speed and efficiency). The users may define rules for message filtering, sorting and presenting messages in special views. Notes databases may be replicated across a network or modem, an order entry database replicated too laptop can be worked on "offline", then synchronized with the master database over modem. Notes discussion databases provides full text search, expandable categories, ordered views, rich text, tables, attachments, and links. Automatic Document Versioning is a feature which generates a response whenever a user edits an original document, creating a document audit trail to the original (one per session). LNotes supports three methods of implementing work flow: Mail enabled, Database enabled and hybrid database/mail enabled workflows An engine for full text indexing and retrieval, called TOPIC allows retrieval from multiple databases, and displays hit lists ranking documents on how closely the meet the search criteria. A range of third party applications have been developed as add-ons to Lotus Notes. (e.g. ELF Technologies, a project at Universitaet-GH Paderborn, ActionWorkflow(TM), Beyond Notes, special services from CompuServe, Quotemaster, Show Business and VisionQuest) Picturetel is developing an add-on to support desktop video conferencing. A third party product called the Isocor X.400 Router will enhance Notes across WAN's (with X.400 messaging).
Ref.: (Hayes 1992; Hsu, Lockwood 1993; Hyams 1993a; Nilsen 1991; Reinhart 1993a; Rizzo 1993)
Metaphase
Contact: Janice R. Carron, (Janice.R.Carron@cdc.com), Metaphase Technology, Inc. 612-482-4313
Class: Groupware toolkit and workgroup environment.
Abs.: "A full suite of well-packaged products and technologies designed to address the Product Data Management (PDM) problem; for sell off-the-shelf through resellers or as flexible technologies by application vendors. PDM provides the environment within which concurrent engineering can be facilitated. The Metaphase product provides process definition for sharing and distribution of data objects throughout a network of groups of users. The suite encompasses applications frameworks, data management, process management, image services, and product structure with configuration management. Metaphase 1.0 is used primarily in the product design and manufacturing markets to track and manage data created by CAD/CAM/CAE point applications. A broad range of functions are provided throughout a networked heterogeneous environment of servers and workstations for end-users, system administrators and managers." (J.R.Carron)
NCSA Mosaic
Contact: National Center for Supercomputing Applications,
University of Illinois, 152 CAB, 605 E. Springfield, Champaign,
IL 61820.
Platf.: Client/server. Mosaic clients run on X Windows, Mac's and PC's. Servers sits on a machine at an Internet site located anywhere on the Internet. (anonymous FTP servers or HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) servers. HTTP is an alternative to FTP in the World Wide Web environment.
Class: Distributed asynchronous collaboration and information
sharing.
Abs.: NCSA Mosaic is a distributed hypermedia browser designed for information discovery and retrieval. It provides a unified interface to the diverse protocols, data formats and information archives used on the Internet. Allows users distributed across the network to collaboratively construct, modify, and annotate plaintext, multimedia, or hypermedia documents in the global information space, and to form information subspaces. The CSCW related capabillities provided within Mosaic are:
* Document annotation - personal, workgroup, or public annotations can be attached to documents located on the net.
* Document crosslinking - hyperlinks can be attached to documents and shared with collaborators as with annotations.
* Document revision control - abillity to check out, lock, or check in documents over the network and to control revision logs and version trees with a hypermedia-based interface.
FTP: Anonymous ftp from ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu (141.142.20.50) in directory /Unix, /Mac, /SGI, or /PC
Source: WWW, (Andreessen 1993)
Object Lens
Class: Message system, semi-structured. Groupware tool.
Abs.: The successor of Information Lens. Hypertext, object-oriented message system with rule-based agents for generating cooperative applications. Object Lens allows unsophisticated computer users to create their own cooperative work applications using a set of simple, but powerful, building blocks. By defining and modifying templates for various semistructured objects, users represent many different kinds of information. By creating semiautonomous agents, users specify rules for automatically processing this information in different situations. The combination of these primitives provides a single consistent interface that integrates facilities for object-oriented databases, hypertext, electronic messaging, and rule-based intelligent agents.
Ref.: (Lai, Malone 1988; Rodden 1991)
Ontario Telepresence Project
Contact: Bill Buxton (Buxton@dgp.toronto.edu). Marilyn Mantei
(mantei@dgp.utoronto.ca), Computer Science Department, Univ. of
Toronto, Canada.
Class: Media spaces, Telepresence, Virtual meeting rooms and shared
editing.
Abs.: A joint government, university and industry project. The project is interested in technologies that support a sense of social proximity despite geographical and/or temporal distance. A large part of the research involves prototyping new applications , and evaluating them through user testing and field studies. Telepresence has been descibed as a combination of audio/videoconferencing (or video-phones/media spaces/teleconferencing) and object sharing systems (like multiuser editors, spreadsheet, white-boards etc.) melted together.
Ref.: (Bly et al 1993; Buxton 1992; Li, Mantei 1992)
OSCAR project
Contact: Dr. Antonio Ulloa (ulloa@vm.csat.it), Technopolis CSATA
Novus Ortus, Divisione Formazione. +39.80.877.011,
fax: +39.80.6951.868.
Platf.: Client/server. MS-Windows (on clients) Object oriented DBMS (on servers). Comm. over LAN, ISDN, Sattelite
Class: CoAuthoring for multimedia courseware production.
Abs.: A R&D project which aims to develop and pilot a test system for supporting collaborative and distributed authoring of multimedia training materials. OSCAR provides facilities for, authoring and communication, high-level services supporting co-authoring, support for courseware project management, mechanisms supporting re-use of existing training materials, and guidelines for joint courseware production. A model of collaborative collaborative authoring has been defined using the AMIGO Activity Model. The pilot test will take place in 1995. Part of the CEC DELTA Programme.
Ref.: (Ulloa et al 1993)
OVAL: Objects, Views, Agents and Links
Contact: Centre for Coordination Science, MIT
Platf.: Macintosh, Email (TechMail)
Class: Groupware toolkit. Rule-based agents and semistructured
messages.
Abs.: Radically taylorable tool for cooperative work. Can provide the functionality of systems such as gIBIS, Coordinator, Information Lens and Lotus Notes. Based on Object Lens. The users can build cooperative tools upon four key building blocks: Semistructured objects, customizable views, rule-based agents and links representing relationships between objects.
Ref.: (Malone et al 1992)
ftp: net-dist.mit.edu (Both OVAL and TechMail)
Rendezvous
Contact: Bellcore, Ralph Hill (rdh@thumper.bellcore.com),
Tom Brinck (hammer@bellcore.com)
Platf.: Unix X, Common Lisp
Class: Groupware toolkit.
Abs.: The Rendezvous system is designed to build multi-user applications for conversational settings. The Rendezvous language is an extension of Common Lisp (and CLOS, the Common Lisp Object System), which provides a declarative graphics system, a constraint maintenance system, an event dispatcher, and a large class library. The Rendezvous toolkit provides standard graphics and widgets, as well as multi-user support, such as telepointers, multi-user text, multi-user drawing, a multi-user undo capability, and support for sharing, with either duplicated or customized views.
Ref.: (Brinck, Hill 1993; Greenberg 1991a; Hill et al 1993; Patterson et al 1990)
rIBIS
Platf.: Unix, client/server. Sun Workstations.
Class: Hypertext argumentation system.
Abs.: A real-time group hypertext system, which allows a distributed set of users to simultaneously browse and edit multiple views of a hypertext network. At any time, rIBIS users can switch back and forth between tightly coupled and loosely coupled interaction modes. rIBIS is based on Germ a generalization of the gIBIS tool (See also IBIS, CM/1)
Ref.: (Rein, Ellis 1991)
SHARE project
Platf.: Unix, X-windows
Class: Application sharing, multimedia message exchange, and information sharing integrated in one system.
Abs.: The SHARE project is building tools to provide computer-based collaboration to assist in the engineering process and specifically to capture and manipulate the information that is generated during that process. The environment consists of both synchronous and asynchronous tools. The asynchronous tools is MIME based Email services. The synchronous services is based on Xshare, an application sharing system for X windows, and gives the users the abillity to share applications running on X windows over the Internet. There are also plans to explore audio/video teleconferencing.
Ref.: (Glicksman, Kumar 1992)
Show Business
Contact: Morel Fourman (morel@cix.compulink.co.uk).
Show Business Software, 73 Collier Street, London N1 9BE, UK,
Tel:011-4471-833-8041,
Fax:011-4471-833-8042. In the US: Show Business Software,
1 Centerpointe Drive, Suite 210, La Palma, CA 90623, USA,
Tel:714-228-2294,
Fax:714-228-2208
Class: Toolkit, front-end to Lotus Notes databases.
Abs.: Interactive front-end for reporting, display and editing of lotus notes based information. The Notes client software provides one way of using the information in the Notes database. Show Business provides a reporting, display and editing tool to access this information, summarize it and present it as text, diagrams, charts, tables and dashboards. Show Business also provides a window onto workflow activity and lets you watch the workflow of your business as it actually happens in Lotus Notes. By extending functionality from reporting, authoring and presentation tools, Show Business provides an easy to use development tool for applications to view, analyze and change Notes based information.
*Flexible data extraction: seeing Notes data as tabular, multidimensional or free text. Traditional reporting tools either refuse to work with Notes databases, or treat them as mere relational databases which they are not. *Systems integration: Show Business applications can monitor workflow and other information in Lotus Notes and combine it with information from other business systems including accounting, sales automation, contact management, databases, spreadsheets and multidimensional models. Can also link to other data sources ranging from flat files to DDE servers like Lotus 1-2-3 and Improv to SQL databases multi-dimensional models.
Source: Morel Fourman (morel@cix.compulink.co.uk)
TeamFocus (or GroupSystems)
Contact: IBM, Univ. of Arizona,
Class: Meeting room system. GDSS.
Abs.: Based on work done at the University of Arizona's Business School. Each group member are provided with a workstation (Notebook computers and wireless LANs are supported). All members can type in ideas and thoughts at the same time. Then the system supports organisation and evaluation of the input. Also sold by Ventana under the name GroupSystems.
Ref.: (Kirkpatrick 1992; Nunamaker et al 1991; Valacich et al 1991)
VisionQuest
Contact: CTC, Collaborative Technologies Corporation. Austin,
Texas. (75740.271@compuserve.com). (512) 794-8858.
Platf.: DOS or Windows, OS/2
Class: GDSS or EMS (Electronic Meeting System).
Abs.: Incorporates tools for structuring meetings and group processes, such as problem exploration, brainstorming activities etc. Allows a meeting planner to establish a meeting agenda with sub-activities such as idea generation or idea evaluation. Meeting members may participate same-time-same-place or connected over LAN, WAN, or modem. Can also be used asynchronously. The participants screens is divided into a shared and a private area. The various tools are:
* Brainwriting: For idea generation. Everybody types their ideas simultaneously.
* Comment cards: Similar to brainwriting, but allows feedback on ideas.
* Subgroup: Define significance (most important, most significant, worst, etc.)
* Point allocation: Define the maximum number of "widgets" that can be allocated and allocate those among the given alternatives.
* Scoring: Participants score (based on a predefined). The score is then normalised.
* Voting: This is a yes, no, abstain tool..
* Rating: Rate all alternatives listed. You set the rating scale and what it signifies. Group average is displayed.
* Ranking Rank items by physically moving them around in the list.
* Compactor: Set up categories and each participant puts each alternative in the category they feel it belongs in. You get a frequency count of how many people put each item in each category.
Source: Ellen Yu Borkowski, Usenet News, comp.groupware
Weasel
Contact: NTH, Norway and GMD, Univ. of Karlsruhe, Germany
Platf.: Unix, X
Class: Groupware toolkit.
Abs.: System for implementing multiuser tools with a scalable distribution property. Based on a relational view model.
Ref.: (Graham, Urnes 1992)
XT-Confer
Contact: support@xtel.co.uk or Neil Cook, n.cook@xtel.co.uk or
nlc@cs.nott.ac.uk
Platf.: Unix X
Class: Groupware toolkit.
Abs.: "Provides an environment for writing CSCW applications under X-Windows. The program is the "glue" that binds it together, and it provides an API and data structures to enable "tools" to be written. It currently supports 10 tools, including text conferencing, shared editing, shared sketch-tool, shared shell, vote tool, shared calendar, and finally a "watcher" tool which enables arbitrary X-Windows to be watched and "shared" with the other "delegates" in the "conference". All of the tools apart from the watcher are fully interactive, and support multiple users of a single tool. For example, the edit tool enables different users to have their own insertion points into a document. It supports floor control, as a layer above the tools provided by the core program. Tools are just notified when the floor changes. Floor can be either open or closed. Closed floor is when one user has control of the floor. Floor Control is on a per-tool-basis. Sharing is automatic, but the watcher tool is active (you choose what to share). It supports different views on a tool, for example when the floor is closed to you, many of the buttons on the tool will be greyed out. As another example, the text conferencing tool has a "private" composition area for each user, and a shared speech area. " (Neil Cook) ftp: contact support@xtel.co.uk or Neil Cook, n.cook@xtel.co.uk or nlc@cs.nott.ac.uk
Ref.: Usenet News, comp.groupware.
CLARE
CLARE is a computer-supported learning environment that facilitates meaningful learning through collaborative knowledge construction. CLARE provides a semi-formal representation language called RESRA and an explicit process model called SECAI. Experimental evaluation through 300 hours of classroom usage indicates that CLARE does support meaningful learning, and that a major bottleneck to computer-mediated knowledge construction is summarization. Lessons learned through the design and evaluation of CLARE provide new insights into both collaborative learning systems and collaborative learning theories.
Dadong Wan, Philip M. Johnson Computer supported collaborative learning using CLARE: the approach and experimental findings, in: CSCW '94. Proceedings of the conference on Computer supported cooperative work, pages 187-198
http://www.ics.hawaii.edu/~csdl/techreports/93-21/cscw94.html
Ceilidh System (N)
Ceilidh is a courseware system designed for the assessment of student course-work in Computer Science and the administration of the corresponding courses. Now the system supports the following courses:
Course Developer
_
C Nottingham
C++ nuts and bolts Nottingham
C++ programming in the large Nottingham
Pascal Royal Holloway University
SML functional language Heriot Watt University
SQL Liverpool University
Developed, not distributed
Fortran Helsinki University of Technology
Software Tools Nottingham
S.D.Benford, E.K.Burke, E.Foxley, N.Gutteridge and A.M.Zin,
Ceilidh as a Course Management Support System, Journal of Educational Technology Systems Vol.22, No.3,1993, pages 235-250
S.D.Benford, E.K.Burke, E.Foxley, C.A.Higgins, Ceilidh: A Coursware System for the Assessement and Administration of Computer Programming Courses in Higher Education, Proceedings of CLCE'94 Workshop, University of Joensuu, Finland, pp.143-148, 1994
http://www.nott.ac.uk/~ceilidh/
Ceilidh (L) Web teleconferencing system
Ceilidh was developed as a system-independent engine for collaboration on the Web. It allows users to write web pages that are automatically converted into hypertext and that appear as individual components of a threaded list of messages. Users can write web pages without any knowledge of HTML (carriage returns, URLs and email addresses are all converted automatically to hypertext) and the messages appear instantaneously on the server. Each of these pages is listed as an entry in an index. Since the replies are threaded, i.e., indented in chronological order below the original message, each entry appears as a single component of an on-going collaborative effort. In addition to facilitating collaboration, Ceilidh can also be used to post bulletins on the Web and it can even function as a Web-based email listserver.
http://www.lilikoi.com
WISDEN
A wide range of interactive computer-based learning materials in the area of software design is under development with the primary aim of making teaching and learning more productive and efficient in the mainstream areas of undergraduate computing courses. The members of W.I.S.D.E.N. are Universities of Glamorgan, Sheffield Hallam, Herriot-Watt, South Bank, Brighton, Teeside, Loughborough and CBL Technology Ltd (commercial partner). The research activity at the University of Glamorgan has focused on existing learning models and has resulted in the development of the UDRIP learning model. This development resulted from the need to amalgamate the positive aspects of current learning models, and to tailor them to the specific environment of CAL. UDRIP is a structured generic model for CAL design and presentation based on cognitive and behavioural learning theories.
http://mail.comp.glam.ac.uk/pages/research/computer-based-teaching/wisden.html
http://mail.comp.glam.ac.uk/pages/staff/gstubbs/
Project: Application of Peer Learning to the Introductory Computer
Science Curriculum
The principal investigator for the project is Craig Wills, a faculty member in the Computer Science Department at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI).
This project involves the application of peer learning to the introductory (freshman/sophomore) Computer Science curriculum. Peer (or cooperative) learning has students working together as part of their own learning experience. Peer learning can take many forms. This project is an outgrowth of our experience with one approach to peer learning in the CS2 course in our introductory curriculum. Our experience, and our collaboration with colleagues on workshops, has shown this to be an important topic and of interest to others involved in the pedagogy of our discipline.
http://cs.wpi.edu/~peercs/
Project: Calculus, Concepts, Computers, and Cooperative Learning (C4L)
Introduction
The Calculus, Concepts, Computers and Cooperative Learning (C4L) program is the result of a National Science Foundation funded research and development project begun at Purdue University under the direction of Ed Dubinsky and Keith Schwingendorf. The emphasis of the C4L program is a pedagogical approach based on a constructivist theoretical perspective of how mathematics is learned. According to this emerging theory, students need to construct their own understanding of each mathematical concept. Hence, we believe that the primary role of teaching is not to lecture, explain, or otherwise attempt to "transfer" mathematical knowledge, but to create situations for students that will foster their making the necessary mental constructions. A critical aspect of our approach is a decomposition of each mathematical concept into developmental steps following a Piagetian theory of knowledge based on observation of, and interviews with, students as they attempt to learn a concept.
Guiding Principles
1. Research into how students learn is primary.
2. Conceptual understanding is the most important, but calculations play a major role.
3. Technology can be valuable, and some ways of using it can be more valuable than others.
4. Cooperative learning is the right context for a mathematics course.
5. Lecturing should be replaced by a task-oriented interactive classroom.
6. Textbooks and course structure must support the pedagogical strategy.
http://www.math.purdue.edu/~ccc/
4. Semiautonomous Systems
Computer systems become more and more sophisticated. Common user has in general more and more problems to communicate with the system in an effective and safe way. This problem is one of the most urgent problems in Computer Assisted Learning and its derivates. There are several approaches that try to solve this problem in general (with impact to CL). If untrained users are to employ future computers and networks effectively, the interaction mediated by means of direct interaction should provide the user with some form of delegation. One solution to this problem is the use of agents. They "know" user's interests and can act autonomously on their behalf. Instead of exercising complete control (and taking responsibility for every move the computer makes), people will be engaged in a cooperative process in which both human and computer agents initiate communication, monitor events and perform tasks to meet a user's goals.
This approach could be also used in the field of CL. The use of agents is still not very frequent and it will require deep investigations in order to determine the fields where their use will be most apropriate (this concerns also CL). The widespread dissemination of agents will have enormous social, economic and political impact. Agents will help to users to have access to the kind of support staff that today is the mark of a few privileged people. They will allow to perform several activities at the same time what will increase dramaticaly the productivity of the computer use.
The use of agents in CL is not new and there exist several systems that allow to use some forms of agents. As examples can be given: Lotus Notes, Object Lens and Oval (see the apropriate bookmarks). A conclusion could be made that the use of agents in semiautonomous learning would require deep investigations that will include not only technological issues but also some psychological, ergonomical and other issues as well.
5. Conclusion
The report contains an overview of aspects linked up with CL. There is also given a reference list of systems used in the field of CL. The report should serve as a source of information for the following activities in the framework of the project. From the information acquired it is possible to determine appropriate strategy for the development of single applications in the CL field.
It is obvious that there exists no universal solution covering all possible applications in the field of CL in computing. It is necessary for each application to determine the needs and on the base of these needs design and implement the system (or in general a solution) that will satisfy the needs given. The integral part of this report is a list of bookmarks in a separate file. There are links to information resources covering various aspects of CL.
Very important aspect is the discussion about psychological and ergonomical features used in the field of CL. As it has been already stated it is necessary to use (and discuss) the problems in the CL field not only as alone standing problems but to consider them from several points of view:
- human-computer interaction
- the use of modern information technologies
- theory of CSCW
- distant learning
- etc.
From these points of view it is obvious that the field is quickly developing and solutions developed few years ago can be obsolete. This situation requires the development of new frameworks in which parcial solutions can be found.