| An Ontological Model to Blend Didactic Instruction and Collaborative Learning | | BIBA | Full-Text | 1-13 | |
| Yusuke Hayashi; Seiji Isotani; Jacqueline Bourdeau; Riichiro Mizoguchi | |||
| Didactic learning that follows the "traditional" model of a teacher-student relationship is often considered completely different from collaborative learning. As a result, few studies have explored the potential to effectively connect these two forms of learning. Nevertheless, in practice, a well-thought-out linkage between these different approaches is essential to leverage and facilitate the learning process. Thus, in this paper, we propose an ontological model that captures the similarity between the two forms of learning, with a focus on participants' interactions. One of the benefits of this model is the creation of a flexible framework to describe learning independently of the approach used to learn. Second, it also enables us to describe the design rationale of learning scenarios and to organize theoretical knowledge for designing such scenarios in the same manner. To validate this model, we show its advantages with the examination in modeling theories for didactic and collaborative learning, and describe the development of an authoring tool for learning design that uses the model to facilitate the design of theory-based blended learning scenarios. | |||
| Boosting Participation in Virtual Communities | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 14-29 | |
| Francisco Gutierrez; Nelson Baloian; Gustavo Zurita | |||
| We have been experiencing an explosion in the market of social websites that
aim not only to entertain us, but also to help us enlarge our professional
networks, to redefine business models and capture new customers, to modify the
way learning and teaching are performed, among others. So far, little research
has been done on what drives individuals to contribute to online communities,
as there is not enough empirical evidence to validate well-established models.
In this research we propose to design, develop and test a set of principles and
functionalities a virtual community should have in order to attempt to achieve
a high degree of activity by its members. We will focus, at first, on the
particular case of educational virtual communities. We would like our results
to cover more of the scenarios and area regardless of its content and context. Keywords: Motivation; Participation; Virtual Communities; Social Networks;
Collaborative Work; Collaborative Learning | |||
| Context-Awareness on Software Artifacts in Distributed Software Development: A Systematic Review | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 30-44 | |
| Rafael Leonardo Vivian; Elisa Hatsue Moriya Huzita; Gislaine Camila Lapasini Leal; Ana Paula Chaves Steinmacher | |||
| Distributed Software Development (DSD) has brought several competitive
advantages, but also many challenges, such as communication among physically
distributed teams. In order to establish the collaboration in software
development, communication and awareness on artifacts generated and shared
among team members are essential. The purpose of this article is to present a
systematic review identifying papers in the current literature that address
acquisition and presentation techniques of contextual information when software
artifacts are generated or updated in DSD. Some important properties and
contextual information, such as relationship among artifacts and their change
history during the software development, were identified and are presented as
well. Keywords: Awareness; Contextual Information; Artifacts; Global Software Development;
Collaboration | |||
| Interference Management Mechanisms and Socio-cognitive Constructs in Cooperative Relationships | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 45-56 | |
| Hengameh Irandoust | |||
| Collaboration tools are increasingly being used to allow distributed
agents/individuals or teams to interact effectively to perform some tasks and
achieve some goals. There have been many research efforts in providing
comprehensive treatment of cooperation in teams or socio-technical systems.
With a multi-disciplinary approach based on human factors research,
organization studies, and artificial intelligence findings, this paper offers a
conceptual framework in which cooperation and other social relationships can be
defined in terms of the fundamental concepts of goal fit, intentionality,
motivation, interference, and dependence. It is shown that social relationships
are established and sustained by means of particular interaction mechanisms
used for interference management, as well as socio-cognitive constructs that
emerge from and feed these interactions. This framework can be used to
determine the level of cooperation between different individuals or teams for a
given task and therefore be used to better inform the requirements of the
collaborative tools designed for them. Keywords: Cooperation; collaboration; interference management; goal fitness; shared
mental models | |||
| Motivation and Its Mechanisms in Virtual Communities | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 57-72 | |
| Juliana de Melo Bezerra; Celso Massaki Hirata | |||
| Participation is a key aspect of success of virtual communities.
Participation is dependent on the members' motivation that is driven by
individual and environmental characteristics. This article investigates the
individual and environmental factors that contribute to motivation and
discusses mechanisms to improve motivation in virtual communities. The study is
based on the Hersey and Blanchard's motivation model, the Maslow's hierarchy of
needs, and the virtual community model. For the discussion of motivation
mechanisms, we reviewed the literature and made qualitative interviews with
members of the Wikipedia community. Keywords: Motivation; participation; virtual community | |||
| Collaborative Refactoring: Results of an Empirical Study Using Grounded Theory | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 73-80 | |
| Pedro J. F. Treccani; Cleidson R. B. de Souza | |||
| Due to the current market dynamics, changes in requirements are often faced
by the software industry, impacting directly on the software system to be
produced. To deal with this situation, software development organizations need
to use techniques that enable fast responses. Agile methods have been
considered adequate to handle these situations. Our research focuses on
understanding how Brazilian organizations are adopting agile methods. In this
paper we present the results of an empirical study of refactoring activities,
which in the organizations we studied are conducted in a collaborative way. We
call this collaborative refactoring. Our results suggest that collaborative
refactoring promotes knowledge sharing among the development team especially
about the software architecture of the system. On the other hand, we also
observed that there is a lack of tools to support collaborative refactoring. Keywords: Agile methods; Refactoring; Collaboration; Grounded Theory; Brazilian
organizations | |||
| Communicating in a Transnational Network of Social Activists: The Crucial Importance of Mailing List Usage | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 81-88 | |
| Saqib Saeed; Markus Rohde; Volker Wulf | |||
| Social movements need to coordinate their political activities. They are
often characterized by a fragile organizational structure, and sparse
personnel, financial and technical resources. In this paper we describe how a
transnational networks of social activists, the European Social Forum (ESF),
uses a central mailing list as a major communication tool. By means of a
long-term field study, we analyzed the work practices of this network and
observed the usage of the mailing list. The empirical findings highlight how
the mailing list is used for a variety of different activities such as
collaborative work, decision making, coordination and information sharing. We
discuss the finding with regard to the discourse on cooperative work and come
up with implications for design. Keywords: mailing list; email communication; community informatics; social activists;
European social forum | |||
| Does "Virtually Being There" Help? Comparing Collaborative Work between 3D and 2D Conditions | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 89-101 | |
| Hannes Olivier; Niels Pinkwart | |||
| 3D Collaborative Virtual Environments (CVEs) have been in the focus of CSCW
research for some time. This paper presents a study comparing teamwork done in
a CVE with teamwork done in a 2D remote condition and a F2F control condition.
The tasks done were designed for groups without prior knowledge; they did not
favor any of the environments. In some dependent variables, the 3D environment
outperformed the other conditions while in others it kept on par. Keywords: CSCW; Virtual Environments | |||
| A Software Architecture for Collaborative Training in Virtual Worlds: F-16 Airplane Engine Maintenance | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 102-109 | |
| Benjamim Fonseca; Hugo Paredes; Lt. Jorge Rafael; Leonel Morgado; Paulo Martins | |||
| The maintenance of military aircraft is complex and exhaustive, requiring an
accurate training program. This process is not fault tolerant and requires
certification renewal periodically. Furthermore, the process involves many
professionals and resources, requiring phases of maintenance and verification
of the tasks. Cooperation between professionals in the overall process is
essential and requires strong team coordination. It is a highly costly process,
since aircrafts are scarce and their readiness is essential for missions, and
it requires a scheduling effort between all team members and aircrafts. The
availability of tools that allow intensive training without aircraft presence
is an asset to the maintenance squadrons. Virtual worlds have simulation and
collaboration capabilities to implement this process. This paper presents a
software architecture developed for training engine maintenance squadrons for
certification, using virtual worlds platforms. This architecture is being
tested in cooperation with the Portuguese Air Force and an engine maintenance
squadron of F-16 aircrafts. Keywords: Cooperation processes; task coordination; virtual worlds; aircraft engine
maintenance | |||
| A Transfer Approach for Facilitation Knowledge in Computer-Supported Collaboration | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 110-125 | |
| Stefan Werner Knoll; Jana Schumann; Thomas Matzdorf; Ayneta Adege; Martin Linnemann; Graham Horton | |||
| Collaboration is an important process for companies to combine the potential
and expertise of their employees. Groupware can improve the productivity of
collaboration by coordinating activities and improving group communication.
Considering the possible complexity of a collaboration process, the faithful
appropriation of a groupware technology is fundamental to design predictable
and efficient collaboration. This paper presents ongoing research on how to
improve technological support for collaboration by formalizing the workflow of
a collaboration process into a machine-readable process description. We will
present a knowledge transfer approach for the adaptation of a logical process
design by an inexperienced user. This approach transfers facilitation knowledge
for the selection and configuration of a collaboration process and provides
rules for instructional writing to support an inexperienced user in defining
clear and explicit instructions. A software application was used to evaluate
the knowledge transfer approach in a quasi-experiment with inexperienced
participants. Keywords: Groupware; Collaboration; Facilitation; Instructional Design; Knowledge
Transfer Approach | |||
| Beyond GSS: Fitting Collaboration Technology to a Given Work Practice | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 126-141 | |
| Tanja Buttler; Jordan Janeiro; Stephan Lukosch; Robert O. Briggs | |||
| Collaboration has become a critical success factor for many organizations.
Collaboration is however not without challenges. Free riding, dominance, group
think or hidden agendas are but a few phenomena in group work that make it a
non straight effort. In addition, tools and technology that supports
collaboration exists in a variety of shapes from complex group support systems
(GSS) to simple boxes with cards and pencils. GSS often only offer a limited
set of tools with a limited set of configurable features. Organizations,
however, face an unlimited variety of problems with an unlimited variety of
structures. In this article, we present a component-based groupware approach
that goes beyond current GSS and allows collaboration engineers to fit the
collaboration technology to a given work practice. We illustrate the
feasibility of our approach by reporting on first experiences on supporting a
requirements engineering work practice. Keywords: Collaboration Engineering; Component-Based Groupware; Collaboration Support
Systems (CSS); Group Support Systems (GSS) | |||
| Collaborative Features in Content Sharing Web 2.0 Social Networks: A Domain Engineering Based on the 3C Collaboration Model | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 142-157 | |
| Lucas Santos de Oliveira; Marco Aurélio Gerosa | |||
| Researchers and developers still replicate ideas with low reuse when
developing Web 2.0 applications. A domain engineering identify and document
communalities and variabilities of an application family fostering reuse. In
this work, we used a domain engineering approach for content sharing features
of social networks. We used as a method the FODA (Feature Oriented Domain
Analysis) with patterns for computer-mediated interaction to describe the
collaborative features and the 3C collaboration model to classify them. To
implement the commonalities, we defined and developed a component kit based on
an infrastructure named Groupware Workbench. We conducted an experiment and a
case study to evaluate the artifacts generated by the domain engineering. Keywords: Collaborative Systems; Domain Engineering; 3C Collaboration Model;
Interaction Patterns; Social Networks; Web 2.0; Groupware | |||
| Identifying the Need to Intervene: Analysis and Representation of Interaction Patterns in Group Programming Learning | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 158-174 | |
| Thais Castro; David Robertson; Hugo Fuks; Alberto Castro | |||
| This paper focuses on a supporting strategy for enhancing distributed and
computer-mediated group programming learning. Based on a real-world research
setting that started two decades ago, we have exploited a particular context
characterized by: (i) a close analysis of artifacts produced by learners; (ii)
a collaborative approach to learning, combined with (iii) a team-based approach
to programming; and (iv) the use of a Progressive Learning Scheme for group
programming learning. These elements are discussed as rationale for the
analysis and representation of forum-based discussion logs generated within a
case study carried out with first year undergraduate computing students. This
analysis allowed us to develop a means of coordinating group programming on a
distributed, agent-based platform using group programming stereotypes from
conversation analysis. These stereotypes were defined using interaction
patterns within a process calculus. Keywords: Collaborative learning; distributed learning environments; improving
classroom teaching; teaching/learning strategies; group programming | |||
| A Collaboration Support Environment for Decision Enhancement in Business Process Improvement | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 175-190 | |
| Mercy Amiyo; Josephine Nabukenya | |||
| Continuous Business Process Improvement (BPI) in light of increased business
process agility demand necessitates continuous process analysis and exploration
of several improvement alternatives. These activities are knowledge intensive
thus require multi-disciplinary skills. Furthermore, the cross-cutting nature
of business processes as a result of having several people working on related
activities in order to attain business goals necessitates collaboration among
stakeholders in any business process improvement effort. However current suites
provide limited to no support for this kind of collaboration especially in the
decision process involved. In light of this, we designed a decision enhancement
studio environment consisting of 4 suites to support collaboration, business
process analysis and dissemination of information in order to enhance group
decision making and achieve business process agility. Evaluation results from
testing sessions at two organisations show that the BPI alternative exploration
collaboration process supported by the analysis tools and group support systems
provides a BPI decision enhancement studio which is a suitable environment to
generate and select a BPI alternative. The BPI Decision enhancement studio is
thus useable and useful for collaboration support in the BPI decision process. Keywords: Business Process Improvement; Business Process Agility; Collaboration
Support; Decision Enhancement; Studio | |||
| A Collaborative Environment for Offshore Engineering Simulations | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 191-206 | |
| Ismael H. F. dos Santos; Alberto Raposo; Paulo G. Rodrigues; Rogério P. Souza; Wagner Gomes do Amaral | |||
| The main objective of this article is to find effective solutions for
collaboration of team workers during the execution of Large Scale Engineering
Projects (LSEP). The research is based on actual operational needs of
Petrobras, a large Brazilian governmental oil & gas company. For this
article we have focused on Offshore Engineering Projects as our case study. We
have implemented a Service Oriented Architecture aimed to create a
collaborative environment, called CEE (Collaborative Engineering Environment),
for visualizing engineering simulations considering important requirements
identified for LSEPs, such as collaboration, workflow coordination, and
immersive visualization. CEE allows team workers to concentrate in the task of
solving a problem using seamlessly the computational resources available, from
the execution of engineering simulations on a Grid to the collaborative
visualization of results in an immersive or desktop environment. Keywords: Scientific Workflow Management Systems; Collaborative Problem Solving
Environments; Virtual Environments; Offshore Engineering | |||
| Design and Implementation of a 3D Collaborative Telerobotic Simulator | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 207-214 | |
| Claudinei Dias; Marcelo da Silva Hounsell; Maurício Aronne Pillon; Carla Diacui Medeiros Berkenbrock | |||
| Three-dimensional robotic simulations represent a way to protect the
physical integrity of both the robot and its operator. Among their
applications, teleoperation enable to command robot manipulations of hazardous
3D objects (such as radioactive or explosive ones) on a remote site. To some
telerobotic applications there is the need for two or more operators due to
task complexity or due to the object being handled. A collaborative robotic
simulator would provide a multi-user environment to perform tasks that are
split to generate interdependence between operators. This paper presents a
simulated 3D telerobotic system where two 5 degrees-of-freedom robots perform
collaborative tasks. The system, called CollBot4us (Collaborative roBot for
Us), proposes a task and continuously evaluate the scenario to determine when
operators have reached a specified goal and, at the same time, it captures
metrics that can be used to assess the collaboration process. While using
CollBot4us operators see a single scene from their own perspective but the
operations they command come from geographically distinct locations. CollBot4us
can be used for teaching robotics through collaboration or teaching
collaboration strategies through robotics. Keywords: Collaboration; Telerobotics; 3D Simulator | |||
| Hey yaa: A Haptic Warning Wearable to Support Deaf People Communication | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 215-223 | |
| Maria Paula Saba; Denise Filippo; Fernando Reiszel Pereira; Pedro Luiz Pereira de Souza | |||
| This paper investigates Hey yaa, a haptic wearable interaction system that
allows sensory-motor communication through vibration. The system allows users
to call each other attention through haptic sensation, without using voice or
vision. Hey yaa, thereby, meets the special needs of the hearing impaired and
works as an assistive technological solution to call people when they usually
wouldn't be able to do so. Hey yaa prototype consists of two waist belts. When
a button is pressed in one, the other one vibrates, drawing the user's
attention. We evaluated Hey yaa concept and prototype regarding usability,
usefulness, usage learning, communication with interlocutor and appearance. As
a result, test users confirmed its relevance and gave directions for further
improvement. Keywords: wearable; haptic interface; deaf communication; accessibility; assistive
technology; hearing impairment computer aid | |||
| Trusty: A Tool to Improve Communication and Collaboration in DSD | | BIBA | Full-Text | 224-231 | |
| Gabriela N. Aranda; Aurora Vizcaíno; José Luís Hernández; Ramon R. Palacio; Alberto L. Morán | |||
| Distributed Software Development (DSD) projects frequently confront the problem of a lack of face-to-face interaction, which is a great obstacle in informal communication. Since informal communication is the means by which people normally discover facts about their co-workers, thus leading to their mutual trust, we have designed a tool called Trusty with which to support DSD. In this paper we describe the main characteristics of Trusty, which provides mechanisms to support communication, coordination, knowledge management and other capabilities such as the statistical analysis of those networks which are valuable in virtual environments. | |||