Collaborative engagement is a quality that contributes successful learning by examining social interactions among students. In natural contexts, online collaborative learning is an evolving process that is subject to fluctuation in how students engage in social interactions. However, few studies have explored the interplay and intertwining of…

Carrying out opportunistic collaboration, a method of flexible collaboration centering around ideas and free collaboration structures, is important in knowledge creation organizations, especially for knowledge-building community formation. However, fixed-group collaboration is still widely employed in educational practice, hindering the…

This study explores educational technology infusion in the U.S. school district context. We used a complex systems perspective to understand the interactions between the classroom (micro), building (meso), and organization (macro) system levels of a school district, offering insight into "how" and "why" certain permutations of…

This study examined the affordances of an embodied humanoid robot to engage children in play and learning from the perspective of embodied cognition in two studies as part of multiyear design research. In Study One, we observed how the robot's embodiment, accompanied by its sensors and movements, elicited embodied reactions of eleven children…

This paper describes the development of the BE COOL! learning environment that gives all children, gifted and non-gifted, the opportunity to learn at a level matching their specific needs and abilities within the social context of regular education. BE COOL! uses the ability-adjusted jigsaw method, in which children of varying ability levels work…

We report on a design-based research study that was conducted over three iterations. It chronicles the design, development, and implementation of School Scene Investigators, a forensic science game series for middle school students that utilizes mobile augmented reality. Played on mobile devices while exploring the school environment, School Scene…

It is important to develop understanding of what underpins the engagement of students in online learning environments. This article reports on a multiple case study that explored student engagement in a set of postgraduate degrees offered on a fully online basis. The study was based on a theorization of student engagement as the exercise of…

French is the ninth most widely used language globally, but French-learning environments in Taiwan have been insufficient. Language acquisition is easier in a natural setting, and so such a setting should be available to language learners wherever possible. This study aimed to (1) create an authentic environment for learning French in Second Life…

This study deals with the implementation of a web-based collaborative inquiry (WISE) project in secondary science education and unravels the contribution and challenges of this learning approach to foster students' motivation to learn science, and its relation with student and class-level characteristics. An empirical mixed methods study in 13…

The aim of this study was to examine the development of the metacognitive knowledge of a group of higher education students who participated actively in an experiment based on a Computer Supported Collaborative Learning environment called KnowCat. Eighteen university students participated in a 12-month learning project during which the KnowCat…

Although important, traditional basic-to-applied research methods have provided an insufficient basis for advancing the design and implementation of innovative collaborative learning environments. It is proposed that more progress may be accomplished through development research or design research. Development research protocols require intensive…

In this study, we investigated the effect of type of positive interdependence (roles, rewards, roles-plus-rewards, or no structure) and affiliation motives (high vs. low) in an asynchronous, collaborative learning environment. College reentry students worked together in small, fully online discussion groups that lasted for seven days. Results…