Tracking Tools In Computer Learning Environments

1. Tracking tools for Computer Learning Environments
Margarida ROMERO. September 2012. ESADE
Tracking Systems in
Teacher Content/Learning
Management Systems ,
r,
che
e te as Group “CMS store in their internal databases
r th enes
Fo ar
large log files with the students’
activities in the course, and have a built-
Aw ss in student monitoring feature that
p s, ne Learner
ou ware
enables the instructors to view some
gr statistical data, such as the number of
For up A Group activity accesses made
Gro by the students to each resource, the
history of pages visited, and the number
ss Learners’ activity of hits for every day of the course.
r, arene However, this information is usually
a rne Aw provided in a tabular format, often
le e)
the edg incomprehensible, with a poor logical
For o
l
w organization, and is difficult to interpret.
(Kn Computer As a result, web log data is very rarely
used by distance learning instructors”
Aw
Learning (Mazza & Dimitrova 2005)
aren
Environment For this reason is important to provide
e
(CLE) Group Awareness tools for
ss
visualizing the learners and group
Log system activities.
Tracking system

2. Tracking tools for Computer Learning Environments Awareness in
Margarida ROMERO. September 2012. ESADE Content/Learning
Management Systems ,
“Mirroring group members information is
Teacher essential for online collaboration, such as
who they are, what they do, their roles
r, and responsibilities, status, presence or
che
e te as Group
absence of members, or the state of
r th enes
Fo ar
various group processes that group
members know when they work together
Aw ss
(Jermann, Soller & Mühlenbrock, 2001). In
p s, ne Learner 1996, the group awareness pioneers
gr ou ware Greenberg, Gutwin and Cockburn
For up A Group activity
suggested that there are four types of
Gro group-awareness: informal, social, group-
structural and workspace. Informal
awareness refers to the general
ss Learners’ activity
ene
knowledge of who is around and what
r, ar
a rne Aw
they are doing including ones self. Social
le e) awareness refers to presence and co-
the edg presence of the team-members; this is the
For o
l
w degree they perceive themselves and
(Kn Computer other as “real‟. Group-Structural
Aw
Aw
Learning awareness refers to the knowledge about
activities and team-members‟
are
are
Environment organisation. Workspace awareness
ne s
n
refers to what‟ s happening on the
(CLE) interface during team-members‟
ss
Log system interaction. According to Jongsawat and
his colleagues (2009), it is stated that
increasing the amount of group awareness
cues increases the groups ability to
Tracking system complete the task effectively”
( Lambropoulos & Romero 2011)

3. Tracking tools for Computer Learning Environments
Margarida ROMERO. September 2012. ESADE
Impact of Group Awareness
in the teamwork,
Teacher Chavez & Romero (2012), the group awareness tools
supports “the perception of participation” and the
r, “cognitive awareness development by participants in
che
e te as Group
a collaborative activity”.
r th enes
Fo ar
Aw
ne ss Learner
p s,
ou ware
gr w
For up A Group activity
ro
Gr
ss Learners’ activity
r, arene
a rne Aw
le e)
the edg
For o
l
w
(Kn Computer
Aw
Learning
aren
Environment
e
(CLE)
ss
Log system
Tracking system

4. Tracking tools for Computer Learning Environments
Margarida ROMERO. September 2012. ESADE
References
Chávez, J., & Romero, M. (2012).
Group Awareness, Learning, and Participation in Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL). In Procedia - Social and
Behavioral Sciences Journal, Elsevier, Volume 46 (pp 3068–3073).
Greenberg S., Gutwin C. & Cockburn A. (1996). Awareness through fisheye views in relaxed WYSIWIS groupware. In Proceedings
of the Graphics Interface Conference, 28-38, Toronto, Canada. Morgan-Kaufmann.
Jermann, P., Soller A., & Mühlenbrock M. (2001).
From mirroring to guiding: A review of the state of art technology for supporting collaborative learning. (P. Dillenbourg, A.
Eurelings,, Kai Hakkarainen, Ed.).Proceedings of the European Conference on Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning
(Euro-CSCL 2001). 324-331.
Jongsawat, N. & Premchaiswadi, W. (2009). Group Awareness Information in Web-Based Group Decision Support System. SMC
2009: 370-375. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, San Antonio, TX, USA, 11-14
October 2009.
Romero, M. & Lambropoulos, N. (2011). Collaboration awareness tool impact in organisational and knowledge convergence: a
macro, mid and micro (3m) analysis for micro-messaging. Internal report. Euro-CAT-CSCL.
Mazza R., Dimitrova V., (2005). Generation of Graphical Representations of Student Tracking Data in Course Management
Systems. In 9th IEEE International Conference on Information Visualisation. London 6-8 July 2005. pp. 253-258. ISBN 0-7695-
2397-8.
Romero, M. (2012). The Use of the Collaboration Awareness Tool EUROCAT in Computer Supported Collaborative Learning.
In Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences Journal, Elsevier, Volume 46 (pp 3046–3050).