Increasing Beneficial Interactions in a Computer-Supported Collaborative Environment

Abstract

University and software engineering teaching are changing in response to the industry demand for new skills. Learning is becoming more interactive, and the impact of student collaborative learning has increased. The extension of collaboration with computer-supported collaborative environments allows increased knowledge building between a wider range of participants. More flexible teaching structures independent of place or time, better monitoring of student understanding by instructors, and improved student productivity and satisfaction can also be facilitated. However, the collaboration has to be implemented carefully, or it will become a drawback instead of a benefit. The first objective of this study is to document the current state of the utilization of collaborative environments and methods in software engineering education. The next stage is to use the results to first specify the requirements for a computer-supported collaborative environment, then to design and implement a prototype, and finally to use this prototype to evaluate and validate the design for improved collaboration. The research follows the design science research process, where a solution design is created through an iterative design and evaluation process and the solution is validated through its utility. A design for improving collaboration by improving issue-related and inter-team communication is created. The collaboration is promoted further by applying gamification to the design. The study shows that engineering students can be encouraged to collaborate online with the application of gamification, that the system increases connectivity in collaboration patterns, and in some cases this collaboration has positive results for learning goals. During the research, the state of gamification design for computer-supported collaboration was developed further by connecting it with the theory of player profiles. Different types of players respond best to different kinds of rewards, for example a simulated social status or additional challenges instead of just an increased score. This study also presents a method for creating gamification profiles from empirical observations in collaborative learning environments.