Linking CSCL design patterns to authentic educational case studies

Contact Person : Yannis Dimitriadis, Univ. of Valladolid, Spain ( [email protected] )
Co-organizers : Symeon Retalis, Univ. of Pireaus, Greece ( [email protected]), Chris DiGiano, SRI International, USA ( [email protected])

Designing effective computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environments in an efficient affordable way is a demanding task, which requires creativity and a significant amount of expertise. We could state that patterns give even experienced designers a common language for discussing their ideas amongst peers and provide CSCL researchers convenient shorthand for expressing research results.

The open issues about CSCL design patterns that can be identified are: i) the diversity of the types-kinds of published CSCL design patterns, ii) their quality and maturity and their linkage to authentic learning case studies and iii) the way of eliciting design patterns.

 The scope of this workshop is to identify the way of linking design patterns with authentic cases and thus towards a better elicitation process for patterns of various kinds, e.g. system oriented patterns, learning flow design patterns, subject oriented patterns.

 We regard this event as a live multidisciplinary forum where attendants will exchange their know-how and ideas on how to take benefit of sharing and reusing design experiences and theoretical results in different fields, and how to apply design patterns as a way for creating usable and useful interactive learning environments more effectively. Please register as soon as possible for the workshop but before April 30 through the CSCL conference site.

 We invite researchers and practitioners in CSCL domain either instructional designers or CSCL software developers, or who have experience in, or are interested in learning design using design patterns, from both a general perspective and in specific subject domains or for specific platforms.

All persons interested in participating in the workshop are strongly encouraged to submit a short position paper (max: 2 pages, using the CSCL 2007 format) to the contact person by March 23, 2007.However, people who have not submitted a position paper may attend the workshop, up to a maximum of 20 persons, if there are seats left. All submissions will be revi ewed by members of the international program committee and notifications of acceptance will be sent by April 2, 2007 to the authors. At least one author of the accepted papers is required to be registered before April 15, 2007. Best papers will be published at a forthcoming special issue on e-learning design patterns of the Journal in Human Behavior, Elsevier. Topics include

• Case studies or experiences from the use of CSCL design patterns as a design vehicle
• User centered design methods using patterns
• Methods for discovery/mining of CSCL design patterns
• Cognitive foundations for CSCL design patterns

CSCL design patterns for specific user needs and “contexts” (i.e., devices or situations of use)