Learning to Collaborate, Collaboratively: An Online Community Building and Knowledge Construction Approach to Teaching Computer Supported Collaborative Work at an Australian University

Abstract

The subject Computer Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW) immerses students into social, philosophical and psychological aspects of working online, and the technology issues associated with being an online workgroup participant. This paper describes, in the context of relevant literature, the teaching, learning and assessment strategies, as well as the open source groupware framework used to build a successful online community for collaborative learning and knowledge construction amongst students of diverse backgrounds and interests, separated by the barriers of time and distance. Student evaluation results and future plans are also discussed. Introduction Each of the authors has been involved in team teaching a subject called Computer Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW) at Charles Sturt University. The subject introduces students to contemporary social and technology issues as participants in online communities. Its enrolment comprises a wide array of undergraduate and postgraduate students, studying both on-campus and via distance education, throughout Australia and overseas, hailing from a diverse range of disciplines. It provides a focus for discussion and application of CSCW in fields such as professional development, information technology, library science, education, teacher librarianship, health care or policing. The four major outcomes of this subject are: 1. to understand the need for a multidisciplinary approach to learning and workflow within online communities; 2. to work effectively within a collaborative community; 3. to understand through negotiation the issues linked to computer supported collaborative work (CSCW); and 4. to demonstrate an understanding of the processes required to design, build, use and evaluate online communities using groupware tools. Students explore various cognitive frameworks used in CSCW, and learn how to select and tailor a framework appropriate to specific collaborative situations and tasks. They study the principles underpinning the design and building of workgroup specific infrastructures to support successful workflow and human interaction. A mandatory component of the subject requires students to collaborate regularly with others using a variety of software – By integrating literature and other subject content about CSCW, students and instructors employ information environments and groupware tools such as e-mail, forums, Z Object Publishing Environment (Zope), Yahoo! Groups, weblogs (blogs) and MOO to facilitate collaborative learning and knowledge construction, and to capture artefacts resulting from these processes. In addition, CSCW has a broader, underpinning aim of helping to nurture community-minded individuals, consistent with the views expressed by Peck (1987): We human beings have often been referred to as social animals. But we are not yet community creatures. We are impelled to relate with each other for our survival. But we do not yet relate with the inclusivity, realism, self-awareness, vulnerability, commitment, openness, freedom, equality, and love of genuine community. It is clearly no longer enough to be simply social animals, babbling together at cocktail parties and brawling with each other in business and over boundaries. It is our task – our essential, central, crucial task – to transform ourselves from mere social creatures into community creatures. It is the only way that human evolution will be able to proceed. (p. 165) Rationale The subject was first initiated when Eustace and Hay (2000) reflected on their own discourse as University teachers and researchers, in which they and their students were expected to use a myriad of Internet services and tools to communicate and share data. They thought it timely to develop a subject to teach both about and using such