Chat Analysis Workshop

Workshop at CSCL 2007 conference

Chat Analysis in Virtual Math Teams

Monday, July 16, 2007, 9:00-4:00

Graduate School of Education, Room 124

Rutgers University, New Brusnwick, NJ, USA

for info, contact:

Gerry.Stahl@drexel.edu

Pre- & Post-Workshop wiki

In the two months preceeding the CSCL 2007 workshop, we began to discuss the workshop papers to help the authors prepare. Summaries of some of the discussions are available by clicking on the "discussion" link associated with the paper below. The full history of the chat is available by opening the associated chat room.

To access the chat rooms, go to [the VMT Lobby] and register for a new VMT account if you do not already have one. Specify the Project "VMT Research". When you enter the Lobby, look for the chat rooms under the topic "VMT Lobby".

You can download the paper below. In some cases, you can also see the reviews that the original submitted version of the paper received from the CSCL 2007 peer review process. There are also links to the associated chat room history, to a wiki page with a summary and to a file of the data used in the paper

Note on data (jno) files: Some of the papers use excerpts from chat transcripts in jno format. After downloading the corresponding jno file to your computer click on the following link to start the player application: [VMT Player]. When the player starts, you will be prompted with a dialog box where you can select the jno file you have just downloaded. This application requires Java Web Start which comes with all recent versions of the Java Runtime Environment (JRE). If Java Web Start is not installed on your system, then you can download it from [Sun's website].

We would like to publish an edited book based on the papers. For more details, see:

Studying Virtual Math Teams

Morning Workshop papers

• Information as a social achievement: Collaborative information behavior in CSCL (Nan Zhou, Alan Zemel, Gerry Stahl)
  [download] [slides] [reviews] [ discussion ] [chat room] [wiki page] [chat transcript 1(powwow1.xls)] [chat transcript 2(powwow2g2.xls)] [chat transcript 3(TeamB.jno)]

• Resolving differences: Twists and turns in a synchronous online collaborative mathematics problem-solving session (Ramon Prudencio S. Toledo, Alan R. Zemel, Gerry Stahl)
  [download] [slides] [reviews] [ discussion ] [chat room] [wiki page] [[chat transcript (powwow10.xls)]

• The organization of collaborative math problem-solving activities across dual interaction spaces (Murat Perit Cakir, Alan Zemel, Gerry Stahl)
  [download] [slides] [reviews] [ discussion ] [chat room] [wiki page] [[chat transcript (TeamC.jno)]

• Bridging: Interactional mechanisms used by online groups to sustain knowledge building over time(Johann W. Sarmiento)
  [original version] [*new version] [slides] [reviews] [ discussion ] [chat room] [wiki page] [chat transcript 1 (VMT0512G2.jno)] [chat transcript 2 (VMT0512G5.jno)]

• The disembodied act: Copresence and indexical symmetry in computer-mediated communication (Alan Zemel, Wes Shumar, Murat Perit Cakir)
  [download] [slides] [data slides] [reviews] [ discussion ] [chat room] [wiki page] [[chat transcript 1 (TeamB.jno)] [[chat transcript 2 (VMT0512G4.jno)]

Afternoon Workshop papers

• Polyphonic Inter-Animation of Voices in Chats (Stefan Trausan-Matu)
  [download] [slides] [ discussion ] [chat room] [wiki page]

• Model for Analysing Collaborative Knowledge Construction in a Quasi-Synchronous Chat Environment (Juan Dee Wee & Chee-Kit Looi)
  [download] [slides] [ discussion ] [chat room] [wiki page]

• A Framework for Analyzing Interactional Processes in Online Learning (Daniel Suthers, Nathan Dwyer, Richard Medina, Ravi Vatrapu)
  [download] [slides] [ discussion ] [chat room] [wiki page]

• Evaluating the Effect of Social Conversation on Learning, Interaction, and Perceived Interdependence in a Collaborative Math Problem Solving Environment (Rohit Kumar, Gahgene Gweon, Mahesh Joshi, Yue Cui, Adaeze Nwaigwe, Carolyn P. Rosé)
  [download] [slides] [ discussion ] [chat room] [wiki page]

• Understanding Students’ Mathematical Ideas and Reasoning in the Online Environment of VMT-Chat (Arthur B. Powell & Frank Lai)
  [download] [slides] [ discussion ] [chat room] [wiki page] [[chat transcript (MIT_Pizza.jno)]

• Complicating Common Sense: The Theory, Practice and Politics of Critical Ethnography in CSCL (Terry Epperson)
  [download] [slides] [reviews] [ discussion ] [chat room] [wiki page]

Workshop Description

Text-based synchronous chat can provide an effective CSCL medium if properly structured and presented. The Virtual Math Teams (VMT) project at the Math Forum and Drexel University has developed an online environment combining text chat, shared whiteboard and wiki for discussion of math, run many trials with students and conducted detailed analysis of numerous interactions that took place.

Chat analysis as practiced in the VMT project is an ethnomethodologically-informed approach to micro-analysis of brief excerpts of online interaction in small groups. The approach adapts the rigorous methodology of conversation analysis to text-based problem solving at a distance.

Workshop presentations will include:

• Data sessions on analysis of a chat excerpt.
• Theoretical issues related to collaborative knowledge building in chat interaction.
• Methodological techniques for the analysis of intersubjective meaning or social practices in small online groups.

The focus of the workshop will be on the analysis of meaning making or group cognition in small online groups engaged in math discussion. The goal will be to discuss preliminary results from the VMT project. This workshop will result in:

• Exposure of the audience to hands-on experience with interaction analysis of chat.
• Deepening of the analysis of data that is presented.
• Development of theoretical and methodological understanding of chat analysis.

Workshop Issues

• How to understand knowledge building that takes place in the VMT environment
• How to support data analysis with technology
• How to move from data to analysis to broader claims
• How to design technology & pedagogy to support effective group cognition online

Internet Access During Workshop

The NETID is gerrystahl and the password is Summer2007

Other Conference Presentations

• Mon 9:00 -- Chat analysis in VMT workshop [intro slides]

• Weds 3:30 -- Evaluating the Effect of Feedback from a CSCL Problem Solving Environment on Learning, Interaction, and Perceived Interdependence; Gahgene Gweon, Carolyn Rose, Emil Albright, Yue Cui (see above)

• Weds 6:00 -- The Organization of Collaborative Math Problem Solving Activities across Dual Interaction Spaces; Murat Cakir, Alan Zemel, Gerry Stahl (see above)

• Thurs 10:15 -- A Framework for Eclectic Analysis of Collaborative Interaction; Daniel Suthers, Nathan Dwyer, Ravi Vatrapu

• Thurs 11:45 -- Information as a Social Achievement: Collaborative Information Behavior in CSCL; Nan Zhou, Alan Zemel, Gerry Stahl (see above)

• Thurs 11:45 -- The Disembodied Act: Copresence and Indexical Symmentry in Computer-Mediated Communication; Alan Zemel, Wesley Shumar, Murat Cakir (see above)

• Thurs 3:30 -- Meaning Making in CSCL: Conditions and Preconditions for Cognitive Processes by Groups; Gerry Stahl [download] [handout] [slides] [TeamB JNO file] [replayer]

• Fri 10:15 -- The Integration of Synchronous Communication Across Dual Interaction Spaces; Martin Mühlpfordt, Gerry Stahl [download][slides]

• Fri 10:15 -- Creativity, Collaboration and Competence: Agency in Online Synchronous Chat Environment; Elizabeth Charles, Wesley Shumar [download] [slides] [data] [data2]

• Fri 7:30 -- International Wine Tasting with Live Music: Browers Commons

• Sat 11:00 -- ijCSCL Invited Symposium: Making Use of Productive Tensions in CSCL; Friedrich W. Hesse, Gerry Stahl, Tim Koschmann, Dan Suthers, Peter Reimann, Jürgen Buder, Ulrike Cress [intro slides]