Papers by Gijsbert Erkens
British Journal of Educational Technology, 2008
CSCL 2007 : Rutgers University : the Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) Conference 2007 : Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA, July 16th -- July 21st, 2007
Boekbespreking Collaborative concept learning: collaborative learning tasks, student interaction and the learning of physics concepts en Computer-supported collaborative learning through argumentation
Pedagogische Studien, 2001
Analytical Frameworks for Group Interactions in CSCL Systems
Analyzing Interactions in CSCL, 2010
ABSTRACT Quite generally, all the authors in this section of the book seem to agree that some typ... more ABSTRACT Quite generally, all the authors in this section of the book seem to agree that some type of active participation in CSCL situations may constitute a main factor for learning, but they differ on what is considered important to take into account, what to look at specifically and which methods to use. This is an unsurprising acknowledgement as such differences are usually based on former education, biases inherited from mentors and current interests. In this commentary, I hope to get past the obvious by comparing these authors’ differences along the aforementioned dimensions. Our goal is to evaluate the current state of affairs—as reflected by these chosen articles—and set the agenda for some specific remaining challenges.
An automatic coding procedure is described to determine the communicative functions of messages i... more An automatic coding procedure is described to determine the communicative functions of messages in chat discussions. Five main communicative functions are distinguished: argumentative (indicating a line of argumentation or reasoning), responsive (eg, confirmations, denials, and ...
Computerondersteunde representatie van coördinatie bij samenwerkend leren (CRoCiCL)
International Conference on Computer Supported Education, 2012
There is a gap in our knowledge about what cognitions play a role while teachers scaffold student... more There is a gap in our knowledge about what cognitions play a role while teachers scaffold students in CSCL. A case study was performed that investigated a history teacher's behavior and cognitions. The quantitative results fit with what is known about teacher behavior, and the qualitative data adds an explanation of why the teacher acted the way he did. Major influences were the teacher's beliefs about effective instruction and his prior knowledge of the students. The results show that although often not done explicitly, there is indeed a phase of diagnosing and evaluating students' work connected to performing an intervention.
Multidimensional Teacher Behavior in CSCL
Computer Supported Collaborative Learning, 2013

Instructional Science, Sep 24, 2008
This research investigates the role of representational guidance by comparing the effects of two ... more This research investigates the role of representational guidance by comparing the effects of two different representational tools. We used a design with two different groups defined by the type of argumentative diagram students co-constructed while working in a computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environment. The Graphical Debate-tool offered different representational guidance than the Textual Debatetool. The results show that groups that worked with the Graphical Debate-tool constructed representations of higher quality and wrote essays that were better in terms of grounds quality. Furthermore, working with the Graphical Debate-tool was found to have a positive effect on students' learning as measured by a knowledge post-test. In contrast to our expectations however, there was little difference between the two conditions regarding the online collaboration process. It can be concluded that representational guidance has an impact on group and individual performance and should therefore be taken into account during instructional design. Keywords Computer-supported collaborative learning Á Representational tools Á Argumentative tasks Á Visualizations Á Secondary education External representations (ERs) are graphical or diagrammatic representations that represent information about a topic (Van Bruggen et al. 2002; Zhang 1997). A growing number of researchers advocates not only the use, but also the construction of ERs by students. The active construction of ERs, is thought to stimulate deeper and more

Computers in Human Behavior, 2009
This study investigated the effects of group member familiarity during computersupported collabor... more This study investigated the effects of group member familiarity during computersupported collaborative learning. Familiarity may have an impact on online collaboration, because it may help group members to progress more quickly through the stages of group development, and may lead to higher group cohesion. It was therefore hypothesized that increased familiarity would lead to (a) more critical and exploratory group norms, (b) more positive perceptions of online communication and collaboration, (c) more efficient and positive collaboration, and (d) better group performance. To investigate these hypotheses, 105 secondary education students collaborated in groups of three. The results of this study indicate that higher familiarity led to more critical and exploratory group norm perceptions, and more positive perceptions of online communication and collaboration. Furthermore, in familiar groups students needed to devote less time regulating their task-related activities. The expectation that familiarity would lead to better group performance was not confirmed. These findings imply that online educators pay attention to the effects group member familiarity has on online collaborative learning.
Learning in the Disciplines. Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference for the Learning Sciences: Vol. 2
Development of epistemic agency in knowledge creation practices
Learning in the Disciplines. Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference for the Learning Sciences: Vol. 1
Pedagogische Studien, 2013
Combining causal and mathematical representations supports learners in collaboratively solving co... more Combining causal and mathematical representations supports learners in collaboratively solving complex business-economics problem-tasks. This study examined the effects of combining causal and mathematical representations on learners' collaborative performance of a complex business-economics problem-task. In total 34

Learning, Jan 2, 2017
Teacher orchestration of the classroom is a demanding task because of the multitude of activities... more Teacher orchestration of the classroom is a demanding task because of the multitude of activities and the rapid pace at which these activities occur. Teachers must constantly be aware of the activities students engage in and the progress students are making, in order to be able to make informed decisions. Recent years have seen the development of learning analytics (LA) to support teachers, in the form of interfaces that capture and visualise data about learner activities. LA are hypothesised to deliver actionable knowledge, because the provided information would enable teachers to immediately translate the information into concrete intervention of some kind. This paper provides a short discussion of the hypothesised affordances of LA for supporting teachers, and subsequently, a case study is presented in which a teacher's sense making strategies of LA were investigated within a digital environment, which enabled the teacher to monitor and regulate the activities of five collaborating groups of students. Besides automatically logged teacher behaviour, eye tracking was used to examine eye movements, and cued retrospective reporting was used to evaluate the choices and decisions made by the teacher. The case study is used to discuss directions for future research concerning learning analytics to support teachers.

Teacher regulation of cognitive activities during student collaboration: Effects of learning analytics
Computers & education, Dec 1, 2015
By collaboratively solving a task, students are challenged to share ideas, express their thoughts... more By collaboratively solving a task, students are challenged to share ideas, express their thoughts, and engage in discussion. Collaborating groups of students may encounter problems concerning cognitive activities (such as a misunderstanding of the task material). If these problems are not addressed and resolved in time, the collaborative process is hindered. The teacher plays an important role in monitoring and solving the occurrence of problems. To provide adaptive support, teachers continuously have to be aware of students' activities in order to identify relevant events, including those that require intervention. Because the amount of available information is high, teachers may be supported by learning analytics. The present experimental study (n?=?40) explored the effect of two learning analytics tools (the Concept Trail and Progress Statistics) that give information about students' cognitive activities. The results showed that when teachers had access to learning analytics, they were not better at detecting problematic groups, but they did offer more support in general, and more specifically targeted groups that experienced problems. This could indicate that learning analytics increase teachers' confidence to act, which in turn means students could benefit more from the teacher's presence. It was examined whether learning analytics (LA) support teachers during CSCL.LA visualized students' cognitive activities.LA did not improve detection of students' problems nor lowered cognitive load.LA increased the frequency and probability of teacher interventions.It is hypothesized that LA increase teachers' confidence of their diagnoses.
Successful collaborative problem-solving through constructing qualitative and quantitative domain-specific representations.: Paper presented at the Biennial Conference of the American Educational Research Association. Vancouver, British Colombia, Canada
Proceedings van de 39e Onderwijs Research Dagen 2012

This study examined the effects of the shared space (SS) on students' behaviors in a computersupp... more This study examined the effects of the shared space (SS) on students' behaviors in a computersupported collaborative learning (CSCL) environment. The SS visualizes discussion and agreement during online discussions. It was hypothesized the SS would increase the media richness of the CSCL-environment, would stimulate critical and exploratory group-norms, would lead to more positive perceptions of online collaboration, and would have an impact on students' collaborative activities. In total, 59 students working in 20 groups had access to the SS visualization, while 58 students working in 20 groups did not. The results show that students with access to the SS visualization: (a) perceived higher media richness; (b) had a more exploratory group-norm perception; (b) perceived more positive group behavior; (c) perceived their group's task strategies to be more effective; (d) engaged in different collaborative activities and (e) performed better on one part of the group task. These results demonstrate the potential benefits of visualizing agreement and discussion during CSCL.
Dialogic and Argumentative Negotiation Educational Software (DUNES)
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Papers by Gijsbert Erkens