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Adaptation patterns as a conceptual tool for designing the adaptive operation of CSCL systems

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Abstract

While adaptive collaboration support has become the focus of increasingly intense research efforts in the CSCL domain, scarce, however, remain the research-based evidence on pedagogically useful ideas on what and how to adapt during the collaborative learning activity. Based principally on two studies, this work presents a compilation of adaptation patterns, which offer the basis for designing the adaptive operation of a CSCL system. In the first study 12 postgraduate students were engaged in a pyramid-type scripted collaborative activity, while in the second study 36 undergraduate students worked in dyads, being adaptively supported by domain-specific prompts in the LAMS environment. The analysis of the learning experiences provided the basis for identifying a number of possible adaptation patterns. An adaptation pattern is described as a pedagogically useful and well-targeted adjustment process that can be initiated by the teacher or the CSCL system, in order to foster an improved learning setting when specific conditions occur during the collaborative learning activity. This pattern-based approach is presented within the notion of adaptive collaboration support. Adaptive collaboration support systems model various entities and processes of the collaborative activity to adaptively support students during run time, in order to provide enhanced learning experiences. Additionally, a prototype methodology (DeACS) is suggested for identifying and evaluating useful adaptation patterns for possible implementation in CSCL systems.

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  1. Department of Informatics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, P.O. Box 114, 54124, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Anastasios Karakostas & Stavros Demetriadis

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  1. Anastasios Karakostas
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  2. Stavros Demetriadis
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Correspondence to Anastasios Karakostas.

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Karakostas, A., Demetriadis, S. Adaptation patterns as a conceptual tool for designing the adaptive operation of CSCL systems. Education Tech Research Dev 59, 327–349 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-010-9162-5

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