Reusability of data flow designs in complex CSCL scripts: Evaluation results from a case study

Abstract

Several approaches have addressed the consistency and automatic enactment dimensions of CSCL scripts with data flow, but they have not appropriately tackled the problem of reusing such learning designs. For instance, workflow-based solutions such as LeadFlow4LD only capture particular case behaviors, instead of describing generic data flow situations. This limitation hinders the reusability of these designs because the workflow needs to be adapted for specific technical, teaching and social contexts. This adaptation is complex and time consuming, especially with a large number of students. In order to show the relevance of this problem, this paper analyzes the LeadFlow4LD approach through a real-world complex CSCL script. The study characterizes the reuse effort of CSCL scripts with and without data flow definition, in different social context settings. The findings illustrate how the data flow representation may affect the particularization of complex CSCL scripts, and pave the path for alternative, higher abstraction level representations of data flows, to reduce the reuse effort. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.