CC-LO: A New Type of Learning Object for the Virtualization of Live Collaborative Sessions

On-line collaborative learning is a mature research field that benefits from collaborative activities which can increase learning efficacy. However, collaborative learning approaches are still not beneficial in every e-learning experience because they require people´s presence and collaboration is many times difficult to achieve. It is remarkable that collaborative learning resources still suffer from endemic problems, such as the lack of authentic interactivity, user empowerment, social identity and challenge, thus having a negative effect in learner motivation and engagement. To overcome these and other limitations and deficiencies, we propose a new type of learning object named Complex Collaborative Learning Objects to support the virtualization of collaborative sessions with the aim to leverage the knowledge elicited during live sessions of collaborative learning, which are augmented with author-generated information, in order to produce interactive and attractive resources to be played by learners. In order to improve social engagement, during the CC-LO execution, a VCS is animated so learners can observe how avatars discuss and collaborate, how discussion threads grow and how knowledge is been constructed, refined and consolidated. Furthermore, learners can interact with the CC-LO to modify some parameters observing the consequences and assessing their understanding. The research reported in this paper is currently undertaken within a FP7 European project called ALICE.