Software and Programmer Efficiency Research Group

Related tools & artifacts:

While the social interaction in collaborative learning
contributes to knowledge construction, its exact mechanisms are
not yet fully understood. In this paper we present the results of a
survey that sheds some light on one aspect of this issue: the
students’ perspectives on team formation in collaborative
learning environments. We surveyed a class of undergraduate
students studying in a blended learning environment using teambased
lab assignments. We solicited the students’ perspectives on
four different computer-supported team formation approaches,
and we asked about their views on different factors shaping their
team formation preferences. We hope that the results of our
survey will help researchers and learning system designers to
better understand the perspective of students and the reasons
why students generally prefer team self-formation over
instructor or system formed teams.