Coordinators of the Special Issue:
- Mercedes González Sanmamed. Universidad de A Coruña
- Pablo César Muñoz Carril. Universidad de Santiago de Compostela
- Nuria Hernández Sellés. Escuela Superior CSEU La Salle
1. INTRODUCTION
In training and learning processes, collaboration is an increasingly sought-after and valued component, since the advantages it provides are multiple and varied. Different conceptual perspectives such as social constructivism, situated, shared or distributed cognition, activity theory or the sociocultural approach, support and sustain collaborative learning that goes beyond group work insofar as the emphasis is placed in promoting "shared knowledge" as a result of a joint reflection to reach a consensus and configure knowledge convergence.
With the irruption and generalization of technology in the educational field, collaboration has gained great prominence and there are many authors who have researched its advantages and the conditions to be considered. There is a vast accumulated experience regarding its implementation at different levels of education, as well as in the learning of various subjects and/or contents (Piki, 2022; Yeşilyurt and Vezne, 2023).
In any case, the key idea is to find out the multiple possibilities offered by technology to promote collaborative learning and, in this sense, to analyze the various components of the design, development and evaluation of learning proposals, as well as the requirements to be fulfilled:
- technological, that is, related to the tools and applications to be used;
- pedagogical, referred to the instructional design; an
- relational, related to both formal and informal interactions, as well as to the norms and relational culture that are generated.
It is also necessary to consider the following dimensions:
- cognitive, related to the learning that occurs,
- metacognitive, referring to the arising learning to learn possibilities; and
- emotional, to analyze the assessments, feelings and sensations that are generated at the individual and group level (Asif Qureshi et al., 2021; Garrison et al., 2010).
A review of research allows us to affirm that it is essential:
- to carefully design the technology mediated collaborative experience,
- to choose an appropriate project,
- to reach an optimal use of support technology,
- to define some bases for collaboration or collaboration scripts and
- to draft an e-evaluation during and after the process (Hernández-Sellés et al., 2014)
In order to reach the common goals, it is essential to generate fruitful relationships and a fluid interaction framework that contributes to creating and maintaining a united community (Borge et al., 2018; Hernández-Sellés et al., 2019; Xiulin et al., 2023). Indeed, interaction must be considered from a multiple perspective (Hernández-Sellés et al., 2020):
- cognitive interaction: which derives from working with the contents, and from the knowledge convergence process generated between students, as well as with the teacher;
- social interaction: which needs to occur between students and with the teacher; and
- technological interaction: with the course interface, with the formal learning tools or with those chosen by the students (Wen, 2022).
2. POSSIBLE TOPICS FOR THE SPECIAL ISSUE, Vol 27(2)
Taking these aspects into account, this work promotes to broaden and deepen on the opportunities offered by online collaborative learning through research that addresses, among others, the following topics:
- Design of online collaborative learning environments: research on the design and implementation of technological platforms and tools that facilitate online collaborative work.
- Collaborative learning and online socialization: research on how students learn and socialize in online collaborative work environments. Analysis of interpersonal and attitudinal skills towards online collaborative learning.
- Evaluation of collaborative work online: research on how to evaluate collaborative work online, including the evaluation of the quality of teamwork and the measurement of individual contribution to group work.
- Online interaction and knowledge construction: research on how online interaction influences the construction of collaborative knowledge and how technology can facilitate or hinder this construction.
- Online collaborative work in formal learning environments: research on how online collaborative work can be effectively integrated into formal learning environments, such as schools and universities.
- Online collaborative work in informal learning environments: research on how online collaborative work can be used in informal learning contexts, such as communities of practice and social networks.
- Design and Facilitation of Online Collaborative Work Processes: Research on how to design and facilitate effective and efficient online collaborative work processes. Analyses on the convergence and divergence processes occurring in interaction processes, conflict management, and the effects on the construction of knowledge and on the procedural and emotional levels.
- Design and evaluation of teaching strategies for online collaborative work: research on how to design and evaluate effective teaching strategies for online collaborative work, including the identification of good practices and the transfer of these practices to other teaching contexts.
- Online collaboration and learning in professional practice: research on how online collaboration can improve learning in professional practice, including developing collaboration skills and improving efficiency and effectiveness at work.
- Online collaborative work and emerging technologies: research on how online collaborative work can be affected by emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality and robotics, and how these technologies can be harnessed to enhance collaborative work online.
- Teachers’ role in online collaborative learning processes. Training and professional learning to design, develop and evaluate collaborative work processes mediated by technology.
3. DATES OF INTEREST
- Last day to submit articles for this call, Vol. 27(2): December, 1, 2023
- In order to have fully up to date works, it is strongly recommended to submit the article during the month of November 2023, not before.
- Official publication: July 2024. In an OnlineFirst edition, the articles could be published before that date, ready to be read and cited.
4. REQUIREMENTS FOT AUTHORS
Before submitting your article to RIED, make sure it fully complies with:
- The specifications of the Special Issue, as stated above.
- What is required in this document and in all the links it refers to, regarding the requirements that any article submitted to RIED must meet.
5. PROCEDURE FOR ARTICLES SUBMITTED FOR THIS CALL
- In the first days of next December, all the articles that have arrived in due time and form will be sent to the preselection evaluators.
- Depending on the number of articles received, these evaluators will have time to filter, prioritize, and decide whether to pass some to scientific evaluation or definitively reject others.
- The articles accepted in this shortlist will go to the international scientific reviewers who will be able to decide whether to accept the article, whether to accept it with slight or substantial modifications, or whether it should be rejected.
- If the works accepted in the scientific review, in total, are less or exactly the number of articles provided, they will all go to the next phase of corrections.
- If more articles than the number planned for publication reach this stage, those that best meet the requirements and criteria established in RIED will be selected. The rest, unfortunately, cannot be published and will be definitively rejected.
- The authors of the accepted articles will receive, together with the acceptance notification, a request to submit a professional and academic translation into the second language within a period not exceeding one month.
BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES
Asif Qureshi, M., Khaskheli, A., Ahmed Qureshi, J., Ali Raza, S., & Qamar Yousufi, S. (2021) Factors affecting students’ learning performance through collaborative learning and engagement. Interactive Learning Environments. https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2021.1884886
Borge, M., Ong, Y. S., & Rosé, C. P. (2018). Learning to monitor and regulate collective thinking processes. IJCSCL, 13(1), 61–92. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11412-018-9270-5
Garrison, D.R., Cleveland-Innes, M., & Fung, T.S. (2010). Exploring causal relationships among teaching, cognitive and social presence: Student perceptions of the community of inquiry framework. Internet and Higher Education, 13(1), 31–36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2009.10.002
Hernández Sellés, N., González Sanmamed, M., & Muñoz Carril, P.C. (2014). Planning collaborative learning in virtual environments. Comunicar, 42, 25-33. https://doi.org/10.3916/C42-2014-02
Hernández, N., Muñoz, P.C., & González, M. (2019). Computer-supported collaborative learning: An analysis of the relationship between interaction, emotional support and online collaborative tools. Computers & Education, 138, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2019.04.012
Hernández-Sellés, N., Muñoz-Carril, P.C., & González-Sanmamed, M. (2020). Interaction in computer supported collaborative learning: an analysis of the implementation phase. Int J Educ Technol High Educ 17(23), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-020-00202-5
Piki, A. (2022). Re-imagining the Distributed Nature of Learner Engagement in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning Contexts in the Post-pandemic Era. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 13316. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05064-0_13
Yeşilyurt, E., & Vezne, R. (2023). Digital literacy, technological literacy, and internet literacy as predictors of attitude toward applying computer-supported education. Education and Information Technologies. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-022-11311-1
Wen, L. (2022). Influence of Emotional Interaction on Learners’ Knowledge Construction in Online Collaboration Mode. International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning, 17(2), 76–92. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v17i02.28539
Xiulin, M., Jingjing, L., Jing, L., & Chenyu, F. (223). An empirical study on the effect of group awareness in CSCL environments. Interactive Learning Environments, 31(1). 38-53. https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2020.1758730
