What exactly is Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL)?

Computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) is an emerging field within the education and learning sciences. For our purposes here, CSCL will be defined as "an environment or context in which the computer facilitates interactions among a defined group of learners engaged in the process of mutually constructing and/or acquiring knowledge and problem-solving skills, without direct or immediate input from an instructor." (This definition combines concepts from numerous authors and researchers in the field: Dewiyanti, Brand-Gruwel, Jochems, & Broers, 2007; Stahl, Koschmann, & Suthers, 2006; Weinberger, Ertl, Fischer, & Mandl, 2005).


We will make a distinction between collaborative learning and cooperative learning: collaborative learning implies that the learners function as a unified and cohesive group to jointly produce the desired outcome of knowledge or skills acquisition by the group.


While CSCL is not necessarily an online experience, this blog will focus primarily on the online, often web-based, aspects of CSCL.


As a fairly new discipline, CSCL is still subject to the controversies of competing theories and methods and a lack of consensus about the efficacy of various practices. CSCL cannot rightly be called “computer-supported” if the technology used is cumbersome and therefore more of a hindrance than an aid. It is not collaborative if the individual learners are working as individuals, dividing tasks into discrete pieces and distributing the pieces, rather than actually working as a collaborative team. Finally, if it does not result in learning, then it certainly has failed. The current research into CSCL investigates all of these issues with a view toward generating standards and theories for best practices in the field. 

What are your personal experiences with CSCL?


REFERENCES

Dewiyanti, S. Brand-Gruwel, S., Jochems, W., & Broers, N. (2007). Students’ experiences with collaborative learning in asynchronous computer-supported collaborative learning environments. Computers in Human Behavior, 23, 496-514.

Stahl, G., Koschmann, T., & Suthers, D. (2006). Computer-supported collaborative learning: An historical perspective. In R. K. Sawyer (Ed.), Cambridge Handbook of the Learning Sciences (pp. 409-426). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Weinberger, A., Ertl, B., Fischer, F., & Mandl, H. (2005). Epistemic and social scripts in computer-supported collaborative learning. Instructional Sciences, 33(1), 1-30.