An In-depth Study of Assessment of Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS) Skills of Students in Both Technological and Authentic Learning Settings

Abstract

In a world dominated by ever-increasing technology-mediated social interactions over the now ubiquitous Internet, collaborative problem solving (CPS) has emerged as a critical 21st century skill for study, work and general well-being. In education, both learning and assessing CPS competency are imperatives. However, research related to CPS assessment has not been a mainstream topic in educational measurement, though there are international efforts like PISA and ATC21S initiatives, and a few assessment methodologies have been proposed. This study is an in-depth investigation to compare students’ CPS performance in a closed-ended technology-mediated and an open-ended authentic task setting. Differences in assessment results were observed, which has important implications for the design of learning and/or assessment in CPS. In the extant literature, large-scale CPS assessments deploy tightly framed, technology-mediated tasks, while CSCL research studies learning in authentic contexts. Our findings contribute to a better understanding of how task contexts influence CPS behavior.