Higher education is still mainly based on traditional face-to-face teaching formats such as lectures. Although known for a long time, the demand for alternative lecture designs has only recently grown significantly due to the present pandemic crisis, which requires a physical separation between the students and also the lecturer. This separation results in challenges of its own: While most solutions already allow the lecture to be held via streaming, it is even more challenging to involve students, or to create interactions with them or between them. Some approaches allow to activate students through simple polls, chats, or collaboration in breakout sessions. However, either the functional scope of these activities is severely limited or they are restricted to small scenarios. The contents of this paper have been under investigation for some time, but in lieu of the current CoViD-19 pandemic, the authors have decided to apply their preliminary findings in actual lectures and present the results here. The main goal is to investigate the addition of more advanced activities that can be adapted to the current scenario. Therefore, an approach is presented that enables lecturers to create custom workflows of interactive activities such as several types of polls, question and answer, instant feedback, or group formations with corresponding interactions. The application in real scenarios is currently being investigated.

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The research presented in this thesis investigates the design challenges associated with the development and use of mobile applications and tools for supporting collaboration in educational activities. These technologies provide new opportunities to promote and enhance collaboration by engaging learners in a variety of activities across different places and contexts. A basic challenge is to identify how to design and deploy mobile tools and services that could be used to support collaboration in different kinds of settings. There is a need to investigate how to design collaborative learning processes and to support flexible educational activities that take advantage of mobility. The main research question that I focus on is the identification of factors that influence the design of mobile collaborative learning. The theoretical foundations that guide my work rely on the concepts behind computer supported collaborative learning and design-based research. These ideas are presented at the beginning of this thesis and provide the basis for developing an initial framework for understanding mobile collaboration. The empirical results from three different projects conducted as part of my efforts at the Center for Learning and Knowledge Technologies at Växjö University are presented and analyzed. These results are based on a collection of papers that have been published in two refereed international conference proceedings, a journal paper, and a book chapter. The educational activities and technological support have been developed in accordance with a grounded theoretical framework. The thesis ends by discussing those factors, which have been identified as having a significant influence when it comes to the design and support of mobile collaborative learning. The findings presented in this thesis indicate that mobility changes the contexts of learning and modes of collaboration, requiring different design approaches than those used in traditional system development to support teaching and learning. The major conclusion of these efforts is that the learners’ creations, actions, sharing of experiences and reflections are key factors to consider when designing mobile collaborative activities in learning. The results additionally point to the benefit of directly involving the learners in the design process by connecting them to the iterative cycles of interaction design and research.

Today, many organizations are facing an increased necessity to employ cross-functional teams. Its growing popularity is rooted in its positive impacts on innovation. Additionally, these teams are an excellent way of managing complex organizational tasks without the need for a significant modification of the existing organizational structure. Despite the benefits of the cross-functional team, the diversity in the profession and the specialized knowledge possessed by the team members lead to different thought worlds and perceptions, causing communication barriers. This is problematic because communication is needed to share, transfer, and create knowledge, which are the prerequisites of both individual and organizational learning. There is various literature on knowledge management and learning; however, our understanding of how knowledge interchanges in cross-functional teams remain limited. Therefore, this thesis conducts semi-structured interviews at five successful companies to examine the policies and procedures established by management to facilitate the interchange of knowledge in the organization. Also, it investigates the activities used by coordinators to maximize learning and create a sense of belonging in the cross-functional team. The findings of this study revealed several activities that could increase both the knowledge interchange and the team’s learning. First, it is preferred to have decent knowledge accessibility, where the bar to contact anyone is low. Second, it seems that knowledge receptivity has to be increased, which can be done by giving knowledge a meaning, using pictures, analogies, metaphors, Etc. Third, a frame of reference could be needed, where people can get into each other’s shoes through, for example, job rotations and learn each other’s jobspecific terminologies. Fourth, competition is preferred to be eliminated, which can be achieved by establishing a common team goal, removing internal bonuses, and eliminating ranking systems. Finally, it seemed essential to have cohesion in the group, which can be accomplished by having, for instance, afterworks, group travel activities, and collective organizational culture

The use of Audience Response Systems (ARSs) for tech-enhanced learning scenarios has proven to address issues occurring within higher education, e.g. the missing interaction between the lecturer and the students. Since the majority of these systems relies on a single supported didactic concept and therefore has a limited set of provided functions, ARSs are currently restricted to support classic content-based as well as enquiry-based learning. The support of more advanced didactic concepts in order to investigate studio-based learning is currently not possible due to the lacking collaborative and cooperative functionality. This paper presents a unified (meta-)model which is able to express various scenarios, targeting the holistic support of content-based, enquiry-based and studio-based learning. The created model is evaluated within a user study to reason about the applicability of its underlying concept as well as the defined function blocks. In addition, this paper purposes ideas for a future graphical editor, which will support the modeling process, and provides concrete details for a possible implementation of a system on top of the (meta-)model. Index Terms—audience response systems, collaborative learning, adaptability, meta-model, domain-specific language, highereducation, technology-enhanced learning

Purpose – International experience is important to prepare university students for successful career in the globalized knowledge economy. However, learners in developing countries have limited access to international educational experiences due to travel costs and constrains, political instability that prohibit academic visits from foreign students and instructors, societal restrictions on certain groups like female students, or old educational systems that resist didactical and organizational changes. The emergence of Social Media enabled the development of interactive learnercentered virtual learning environments that enable collaborative knowledge building in online social communities.This empirical study aims to explore how to provide Jordanian university students with international academic experience during their regular study programs without travelling abroad. Virtual Collaborative Learning has been introduced and examined in this specific context due to its reported high potential for developing countries. Design/methodology/approach – Following an educational design based approach, a Virtual Collaborative Learning arrangement has been re-designed to involve Jordanian students in a formal masters’ course with German students at the Technische Universität Dresden. Factors that affect participated Jordanian students’ perception of this experience have been examined using deep interviews and qualitative content analyses methods. Originality/value – The value of this study lays in the innovative approach to provide Jordanian university students with international learning experience by integrating them in a virtual community with peers from Germany using Social Media application. Practical implications – This study delivers empirical evidence on the potential of welldesigned Virtual Collaborative Learning arrangements to provide students with enjoyable, high-impact, immersive international learning experience at their home university. This helps universities, especially in Arab and developing countries, to grant their students a new learning experience using affordable easy-to-use Social Media solutions.

<div>The innovations in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) in the recent decades have given rise to large open-source datasets. MRI affords researchers the ability to look at both structure and function of the human brain. This dissertation will make use of one of these large open-source datasets, the Human Connectome Project (HCP), to study the structural and functional connectivity in the brain.</div><div>Communication processes within the human brain at different cognitive states are neither well understood nor completely characterized. We assess communication processes in the human connectome using ant colony-inspired cooperative learning algorithm, starting from a source with no <i>a priori</i> information about the network topology, and cooperatively searching for the target through a pheromone-inspired model. This framework relies on two parameters, namely <i>pheromone</i> and <i>edge perception</i>, to define the cognizance and subsequent behaviour of the ants on the network and the communication processes happening between source and target. Simulations with different configurations allow the identification of path-ensembles that are involved in the communication between node pairs. In order to assess the different communication regimes displayed on the simulations and their associations with functional connectivity, we introduce two network measurements, effective path-length and arrival rate. These measurements are tested as individual and combined descriptors of functional connectivity during different tasks. Finally, different communication regimes are found in different specialized functional networks. This framework may be used as a test-bed for different communication regimes on top of an underlying topology.</div><div>The assessment of brain <i>fingerprints</i> has emerged in the recent years as an important tool to study individual differences. Studies so far have mainly focused on connectivity fingerprints between different brain scans of the same individual. We extend the concept of brain connectivity fingerprints beyond test/retest and assess <i>fingerprint gradients</i> in young adults by developing an extension of the differential identifiability framework. To do so, we look at the similarity between not only the multiple scans of an individual (<i>subject fingerprint</i>), but also between the scans of monozygotic and dizygotic twins (<i>twin fingerprint</i>). We have carried out this analysis on the 8 fMRI conditions present in the Human Connectome Project -- Young Adult dataset, which we processed into functional connectomes (FCs) and time series parcellated according to the Schaefer Atlas scheme, which has multiple levels of resolution. Our differential identifiability results show that the fingerprint gradients based on genetic and environmental similarities are indeed present when comparing FCs for all parcellations and fMRI conditions. Importantly, only when assessing optimally reconstructed FCs, we fully uncover fingerprints present in higher resolution atlases. We also study the effect of scanning length on subject fingerprint of resting-state FCs to analyze the effect of scanning length and parcellation. In the pursuit of open science, we have also made available the processed and parcellated FCs and time series for all conditions for ~1200 subjects part of the HCP-YA dataset to the scientific community.</div><div>Lastly, we have estimated the effect of genetics and environment on the original and optimally reconstructed FC with an ACE model.</div>

Corona-pandemin har påverkat utbildningen på många sätt, inte minst för dem som studerar svenska som andraspråk. Interaktion, kommunikation och kollaborativt lärande är viktiga delar av språkinlärning och något som blivit lidande av den påtvingade distansundervisningen. En metod för kollaborativt lärande som med fördel kan genomföras med digitala verktyg är kamratrespons. I denna studie undersöktes hur deltagare på en folkhögskola påverkats av den påtvingade distansundervisningen, med fokus på deras studier i svenska som andraspråk på gymnasienivå, och huruvida ett digitalt kamratresponssystem skulle kunna gynna det kollaborativa lärandet med digitala hjälpmedel. Studien genomfördes med deltagare och lärare på Mångkulturella Folkhögskolan i Göteborg, genom kvalitativa frågeformulär och intervjuer. Det empiriska resultatet visar på en varierad bakgrund bland deltagarna, till viss del försämrad studiemotivation på grund av distansundervisningen, samt en positiv inställning till kamratrespons som en möjlighet att lära av varandra. Tillsammans med tidigare forskning inom språkinlärning, datorstödd språkinlärning och datorstött kollaborativt lärande identifierades ett antal riktlinjer för framtagandet av ett digitalt kamratresponssystem som anses kunna gynna den studerade kontexten. Dessa riktlinjer gestaltas i ett designkoncept som visar ett förslag till hur det digitala kamratresponssystemet skulle kunna se ut. / The Corona pandemic has affected education in many ways, and those studying Swedish as a second language are no exception. Interaction, communication, and collaborative learning are all important factors of successful second language acquisition, all of which have been reduced because of forced remote learning. One method for collaborative learning that can be enhanced using digital tools is peer response. This study has examined how the adult students at a folk high school have been affected by the forced remote learning, focusing on their studies in Swedish as a second language at high-school level. The study also investigates whether a digital peer-response system could benefit the collaborative learning process for the involved students. The study involved students and teachers at Mångkulturella Folkhögskolan in Gothenburg, Sweden, who were asked to participate through an online survey and individual interviews. The empirical result shows a vast diversity among the participants, a somewhat decreased motivation to study due to forced remote learning, and a positive attitude towards peer response as a possibility to learn from each other. Together with previous research in the fields of language acquisition, computer assisted language learning and computer supported collaborative learning, several guidelines have been developed for the development of a digital peer review system that are considered to be favourable for the studied context. These guidelines have been illustrated in a design concept that shows a suggestion as to what the digital peer response system could look like.

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No description available.