Collaborative Learning Design within Open Source E-Learning Systems - E-Infrastructures and Technologies for Lifelong Learning - page 215

INTRODUCTION the students, learning assessment, etc. (Koper &

Tattersall, 2005).
The essential role of suitably-designed tools to
support teachers in their mindful and appropriate
'learning design' has been acknowledged by many
researchers (Lloyd & Wilson, 2001; Babiuk, 2005;
Kordaki, Papadakis, Hadzilakos, 2007; Kordaki &
Daradoumis, 2009). In fact, teachers require more
specific support in their learning design practices,
such as specific tools and good examples of lesson
plans. Thus, teacher encouragement and support
for learning design is clearly needed. To this end,
the role of learning design patterns has been ac-
knowledged as essential (McAndrew, Goodyear,
& Dalziel, 2006). Learning patterns looks to work
on Architectural Patterns (Alexander, 1979) as a
way to capture knowledge from designers and
share them with practitioners.
Especially when it comes to Computer Science
(CS) Education, educators have adopted a rather
deficient approach to 'learning design', possibly
because CS Education is a recently-developed
scientific discipline. Yet, learning design should
be an essential part of CS teachers' education. A
number of studies have investigated CS teachers'
opinions on CS curricula and on teaching and
learning in CS as well as their real classroom
practices (Kalyva, & Kordaki 2006; Kordaki &
Kalyva, 2006). In addition, some studies have
investigated the role of CS teachers in the forma-
tion of collaborative learning activities (Voyatzaki
and Avouris, 2005). However, studies investigat-
ing Prospective Computer Science Professionals'
(PCSPs) attempts to design learning courses
incorporating 'computer supported collaborative
learning design using some essential, specific
and context free collaboration methods' have not
yet been reported. Specifically, these methods
are referred to: Brainstorming (Osborn, 1963),
Student Teams Achievement Divisions (STAD;
Slavin, 1978), Jigsaw (Aronson, Blaney, Sikes,
Stephan & Snapp, 1978), Group Investigation
Method (Sharan & Hertz-Lazarowitz, 1980),
Co-op Co-op (Kagan, 1985), Guided Reciprocal

E-learning has provided education with many
benefits in terms of flexible opportunities to learn
anytime and anywhere as well as to communicate
and collaborate virtually throughout the world
(Harasim, Hiltz, Teles & Turoff, 1995). Recent
studies of e-learning have pointed out that involv-
ing learners in collaborative learning activities
could positively contribute to extending and
deepening their learning experiences, test out new
ideas, improve learning outcomes and increase
learner satisfaction, at the same time decreas-
ing the isolation that can occur in an e-learning
setting (Palloff & Pratt, 2004). Furthermore,
collaborative learning situations can provide a
natural setting for demanding cognitive activi-
ties which can also trigger collaborative learning
mechanisms such as knowledge articulation as
well as sharing and distributing the cognitive
load (Dillenbourg, 1999). Within the context of
online collaborative learning, students could also
be provided with opportunities to be motivated to
actively construct their knowledge (Scardamalia,
& Bereiter, 1996) and to enhance their diversity
and their understanding of the learning concepts
in question as well as to acquire a sense of belong-
ing online (Haythornthwaite, Kazmer, Robins, &
Shoemaker, 2000).
However, many teachers remain unsure of
why, when, and how to integrate collaboration
into their teaching practices in general as well as
into their online classes (Panitz, 1997; Brufee,
1999). Here, it is also worth mentioning that
the abundance of theoretical considerations and
models that provide teachers with resources for
'learning design' remains largely unused in their
real teaching practices (Fosnot, 1966; Brufee,
1999). At this point, we shall use the term 'learn-
ing design' to indicate all the elements of learning
activity design, e.g. a learning task to be posed
to the students, a set of questions, the group
formation, the learning materials to be used by