Toward Supporting Constructivist Instruction through CSCL Activities Embedded in LMSs

Integrating CSCL activities is something that has been widely discussed in the CSCL community but as yet only implemented in a reduced set of domain specific tools. In this paper we propose the integration of a set of default and authoring CSCL tools into a standard LMS, as a complete sequence of learning activities based on a constructivist approach. An experiment was also carried out in order to verify the usability and extent of the collaborative work in a real context. Based on results of evaluation, we conclude that the integration of chat was a useful addition to the concept map building tool. This highlighted the professor role as a moderator entity maintaining a central role during the learning experience. The tests were carried out in presence of professors who felt that software would be useful to promote the participation of students and facilitate continuous assessment for this courses and other courses.