1. Can we afford CSCL?
…and do we have the TIME?
Paul A. Kirschner
Open Universiteit Nederland
1

2. Affordances
2

3. Affordance???
Possibility for action
• reciprocal relation
• perception-action coupling (you
perceive something and thus you do
something)
3

4. In other words, while an object
can offer an opportunity, it
does not have an affordance
4

5. What is CSCL?
• Learning
• With others (Collaboration)
• Supported by a computer network
PLACE
(Electronic) project
Problem-based same
co-located rooms
learning place
groups
contiguous learning
group
synchronous asynchronous
TIME
co-presence time deferred
asynchronous
distributed learning
group
Video Threaded
conferencing discussion lists
different
place distributed
5

6. Premise 1
Artifacts and our
perception of them
influence our behavior
6

7. 7

8. Premise 2
Behavior is determined by:
• Culture
• Material
• Technology
In other words: Behavior is context-
bound
8

9. 9

10. Premise 3
Education is always a combination of
technological, social and
pedagogic/educational affordances
10

11. Educational
authentic
task
group
responsibility
external internal
control control
individual
responsibility
constructed
task
11

12. interdependence positive negative none
interaction promotive oppositional none
acceptance, support, rejection, distrust,
affordances none
trust, liking disliking
information exchange,
no or misleading
activities mutual influence, none
communication
resource utilization
emotional
high low none
involvement
cooperative competitive individualistic
Social
12

13. Presence
Trust
13

14. Cohesiveness /
Group forming
Form Storm Norm Perform Adjourn
Belonging
14

15. (Tele)proximity
Archetypical Social Affordance
Devices
15

16. Technical
16

17. What’s time got to do with it?
Social awareness
• Presence – Being aware of others
• Cohesiveness – Group forming takes time
• Trust – Needs to be built
• Belonging – Feeling must grow
Attitudes &
Beliefs Team
Psychological Safety
Orientation
Mutual Trust
Coordinating
Mechanisms Shared Mental Models
Closed‐Loop Communication
Behavioral
Components
Mutual Performance Monitoring Team Effectiveness
Back-Up Behavior
Team
Leadership
Adaptability
Developmental
Forming Storming Norming Performing 1 Reforming Performing 2 Conforming
Perspective
First meeting Phase 1 Transition Phase 2
+ = Intermediate variables + = Variables not included in the research = Direct influence = Conditional or supporting effect
17

18. 18

19. What’s time got to do with it?
Educational awareness
• Transaction costs
– Communication
– Coordination
• Benefits
– Effectiveness
– Efficiency
– Understanding
19

20. Elegant?
Negotiation process
Unshared knowledge
External knowledge
Externalisation
Shared knowledge
Internalisation
Shared formalism
20

21. Negotiation Tool
21

22. What’s time got to do with it?
Technological opportunities and constraints
– Platform features
– Synchronicity
– Bandwidth
– Mobility
Platform features + Learner features
=
Learning AFFORDANCE
How can CSCL be optimized
by proper usage of
technological, educational
and social affordances?
Analyze the Design CSCL
combination of (environments) and
educational, social, tools for optimizing
and technological (the perception of)
affordances for affordances for
collaborative learning. learning.
22

23. Learner / user What do learners actually do?
experience What do learners want to do?
Support / How can we support what they do?
affordances What affordances are needed?
Constraints / What are the physical, logical and
conventions cultural limitations encountered?
How does the learner perceive the Learner / user
support? perceptions
How does the learner actually use Learner / user
the support? experience
What has the learner / learning
Learning
group actually achieved?
Moltes gràcies / Muchas gracias /
Kiitos paljon / Merci beaucoup /
Hartelijk bedankt / Thanks
paul.kirschner@ou.nl
23