1. Designing Learning Sessions Using
Design Patterns
University of Piraeus, Department of Digital Systems
Computer Supported Learning Engineering Laboratory
http://cosy.ted.unipi.gr
Symeon Retalis (retal@unipi.gr), P. Georgiakakis
This project is partially funded with support from the European Commission. This presentation reflects the views of the partners and the Commission cannot
be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
www.design-practice.org

2. Overview
 Motivation of our work
 Supporting Teachers/Practitioners
 Designing effective scripts for supporting the
computer supported collaborative creative
(CSCC) process
 Learning Flow Design Patterns
 Variations of Design Patters
 Adding recommendations to tools to support
CSCC scripts
 Concluding remarks
idSpace project on Tooling and Training for collaborative product innovation
http://idspace-project.org

3. Need for better pedagogy
 Explicit, dedicated pedagogical strategies to
enhance of active learning should be
communicated to practitioners (Baruah and
Paulus, 2008).
 ExamplesQ
 Collaborative Strategies: Jigsaw, TPS, Pyramid,
Role Playing, eARMA
 Creativity Strategies: Six Hats, SCAMPER, 5H1W

4. Collaborative Learning…
Source: Michael Beyerlein (2006), Keynote Address at American Creativity Association International Conference
2006
Unfocused activities and
free collaboration does not
necessarily produce
effective learning outcomes

5. Creative & Collaborative
strategies/techniques
 Collaborative Strategies like Jigsaw, TAPS advocate that
there is no collaboration without communication
 Groups need not only communication, but also share information,
resources and knowledge
Source: http://gsic.tel.uva.es/collage

6. Needs when designing learning situations
 Dynamic learning scenarios need for:
 Structured designs of collaborative creative problem
solving situations
 Flexible customizable designs of computer supported
collaborative creativity situations (CSCC)
6
Activity level (macro): Collaborative learning flow,
i.e., sequence of activities that make up a learning
process
Action level (micro): Detailed learning actions
within an activity

7. CL Flow Patterns
 Broadly accepted techniques repetitively used
by practitioners (best /good practices)
 Codified
 as patterns for the design of (potentially
effective) CSCL scenarios (scripts)
 so that they can be reused in different
situations / content / disciplines

8. TPS CLFP Thinking, forming pairs and
sharing
Source: http://gsic.tel.uva.es/collage

9. Problem Solving Steps
1. Definition of the problem
2. Constructing a strategy
3. Organizing information
4. Allocation of resources
5. Monitoring the solving process
6. Evaluating the solving process
and outcomes
(Sternberg, 2003)
eARMA CLFP for collaborative problem
solving

10. The CLFP design pattern format
Element Explanation
Name Name of the FDP
Context Environment type in which the CLFP could be applied
Problem Learning problem to be solved by the CLFP
Solution Description of the proposal by the CLFP for solving the
problem
Actors and Actions Description of the actors involved in the collaborative
activity described by the CLFP as well as their activities
Types of Tasks Description of the types of groups of learners identified and
how they are related, types of tasks, together with their
sequence, performed by the actors involved in the activity.
Example A real-world learning activity capable of being structured
according to the CLFP
Related patterns Names of other interrelated patterns
References List of resources for further reading

11. Variations of a strategy in a CLFP
 A new element needs to be added, entitled “variations”.
 This element will specify what to change and under
which conditions in the sequence of activities, the
resources or the tools.
 All these changes need to be justified in order to
illuminate the rationale behind these variations.
 to give advice to designers on how to make effective mixtures of
strategies without harnessing the basic educational philosophy
and added value

12. Example of Variations
 Instead of the Sternberg’s model a teacher
may select the IDEAL problem solving model
(Bransford & Stein, 1984 which includes five
steps.

13. Variations of a strategy in a CLFP –
Preparation of a cocktail
 During the preparation of a cocktail,
 the cornerstone is an understanding of the relationships between
strong and weak, sour and sweet
 in CSCL, a designer should blend the phases, the
resources, and the tools (i.e. the ingredients) together
cautiously.
 Otherwise, this scenario will resemble a weak or watery
development like a cocktail with inappropriate flavour, texture and
colour.
Source: http://www.vincenzos.com/images/cocktail.gif

14. Recommendations during the design
process
 Higher order, which will help a practitioner to choose
among the most suitable creativity strategy for a specific
scenario/case. This choice will be based on elements
such as the type of learning objectives need to be
accomplished, the complexity of implementing a strategy
as a whole and as per activities of the strategy.
 Organisational recommendations which will involve
decisions about the formation of groups, leadership
schema, etc.
 Technological recommendations which will concern
the use of specific tools, features for the implementation
of the strategy into a real specific scenario/case.

15. Selection criteria based on the operations
types and activities
 Learning objectives. An example TAPPS strategy can
help in accomplishing the procedural objective of
“promoting analytical reasoning skills”.
 Types of problems that are best served with the
strategies. For example, Jigsaw is most appropriate
when a problem to be solved is “complex and can be
easily divided into sections or independent sub-
problems”.
 Complexity or risk in terms of collaborative learning
experienced needed. For example Jigsaw is complex
and is probably more appropriate for experienced
participants

16. Selection criteria
 complexity: low|high
 type-of-problem: closed|open
 physical-requirements: yes|no
 emotions-dependent: yes|no
 interactive: low|high
 supporting-action: exporation|combination|transformation|evaluation
// characterization by Boden
 distance: short|long // the distance between an given input and the
possibly resulting idea
 moderator: yes|no
 expert_participants: yes|no

17. Recommendations in computable
format

18. The example of the eARMA strategy
The example eARMA strategy:
 complexity: high
 type-of-problem: closed
 physical-requirements: no
 emotions-dependent: no
 interactive: high
 supporting-action: exploration, combination, evaluation
 distance: short
 moderator: no
 expert_participants: no

19. Open Issues…
 Not all recommendations can be computable
(e.g. bulding trust or the group size, etc.)
 However advice is needed
 Building recommender systems
 Usable & effective for novice designer s/
practitioners
 Creating systems for supporting collaborative
creativity processes

20. Designing Learning Sessions Using
Design Patterns
The present work was carried out as part of
• the LdV Transfer of Innovation project “A Framework for Preparing Teachers to Teach with
ICT” (ref LLP-LdV-TOI-09-CY-167918)
Symeon Retalis (retal@unipi.gr)
This project is partially funded with support from the European Commission. This presentation reflects the views of the partners and the Commission cannot
be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
www.design-practice.org