News

05/05/2025: Minimum participant number reached

 Which means the workshop will take place! Excited to meet you in Helsinki !

05/04/2025: ICLS (and workshop) registration is open!

You can now register for the ISLS conference here

Agenda

Before the conference

While it's "just" a half-day workshop, we are motivated to make the most of it. Therefore, we invite participants to engage in a collaborative online writing three weeks prior to the conference. A link to a shared document will be shared via email with registered participants.

Workshop Agenda

Session 1 - Workshop Introduction: The workshop itself will be initiated by an introductory presentation to raise awareness and sum up the online discussion to include participants of the workshop for group discussions. Active members of the online activity will be invited to hold lightning talks (online and offline) on their topic. Results of a CSCL survey will briefly be presented to underline the challenge of a common CSCL vision. The introduction is expected to take 30 to 40 minutes. 

Session 2 - Small Group Discussions: Small groups consisting of 3-5 people will be organized with maximal disciplinary diversity (participants will be prompted to provide their disciplinary background ahead of the conference workshop). Groups will either discuss topics that have emerged during the previous online exchange or have the freedom to brainstorm or introduce new issues. Panelists identified during the preceding online discussion are invited to lead the different groups along the issue they identified as central. Groups will be provided scaffolding questions for their group work in prepared Google slides, prompting participants to (1) detail the issue at hand and (2) define measures and identify potential challenges to the implementations of solutions. Online participants will work in dedicated groups. Group conversations are expected to last 40 minutes, the results of which will be presented in 3 minute presentations.

Session 3 - Panel Discussion: The groups then separate and a panel with panelists and volunteer participants is set up. The panel will be selected based on their role in the prior online exchange and background with a focus on diversity. Panelists will be invited to discuss methods and paths toward paradigm building, and with the possibility of intervention from other workshop participants. Findings will be summarized by the organizers before challenging the panel to come up with a definition of CSCL and its key concepts to demonstrate the variety of perspectives and overlapping perceptions. The panel will have 60 to 70 minutes.

Session 4 - Wrapping up: The workshop will be closed with a summary of actions to be taken and a possible assignment for coordinators on the different measures proposed. During this part, participants may start to form teams and exchange contact information. A general invitation is issued to contribute to a collaborative research paper about the proposed measures and how these articulate together in a collaborative endeavor of paradigm building to be submitted to the ijCSCL journal. Participants are invited to express their interest in contributing. This part is expected to last 30 to 40  minutes.

After the conference

Rome wasn't built in a day - we are aware that paradigms take time to emerge, even when actively "pushed" into the right direction. We will need everyone in the community to contribute to this - collaborative learning experience!

We are passionate collaborators - and would love to have you join us to make the results of this workshop inspire a continous effort for a CSCL paradign - through a collaborative paper. 

Call for Participation

The question of whether a CSCL paradigm exists has been the subject of debate within the community over the past 30 years. While the ijCSCL journal has dedicated some of its 2024 issues to the topic, it is still still open to what extent a shared paradigm exists. Paradigms are crucial for research communities to identify their research questions, perspectives and help members navigate their corpus of theory. Given the challenges in CSCL, the authors invite researchers and practitioners to join a workshop with the claim that a paradigm can be the result of collaboration. We believe that the CSCL community has the potential to actively build its own paradigm in an orchestrated effort. First-timers and senior researchers from any discipline alike are welcome to contribute their perspectives. The workshop is designed to be highly interactive and center around community building and networking to sketch a vision for the CSCL community. Participants will have the opportunity to co-author a collaborative publication, contributing to a comprehensive synthesis of the workshop’s findings and proposed roadmap for advancing the CSCL paradigm. 

Organizers

• Conrad Borchers, Carnegie Mellon University

• Francesco Balzan, University of Bologna

• Berkan Celik, Van Yüzüncü Yıl University

• Bahar Shahrokhian, Arizona State University

• Amine Hatun Ataş, Galatasaray University

• Mia Čarapina, Zagreb University of Applied Sciences

• Sebastian Simon, University of Copenhagen

• Elham Tajik, Florida State University 

• Gaëlle Molinari, TECFA

• Carol K. K. Chan, University of Hong Kong