Formative Assessment Of Computer-supported Collaborative Learning And Knowledge Building

Abstract

Collaborative learning is an important element of 21C pedagogy, making the question of how to diagnose and assess learning on the group level a pivotal one. This chapter will synthesize the state of the art regarding the automatic diagnosis of collaborative knowledge development, with a particular focus on applications in knowledge building classrooms. The chapter will first provide a brief conceptual introduction to CSCL and knowledge building. Next we will survey approaches to formative assessment in the field of CSCL. Next we describe our own team's research involving the Knowledge Connections Analyzer. Finally, we outline future directions for integrating the described formative assessment approaches with student information systems.