Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL)

Call for Contributions to the 15th International Conference on Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL)

Submissions closed November 21st, 23:59 PST

The 15th International Conference on Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) under the roof of the ISLS Annual Meeting 2022 in Hiroshima, Japan, is the premier venue for research in the design and use of technologies to support learning in groups, organizations, communities, and networks. CSCL highlights how learning is a social process in an ecology of devices, tools, and learning arrangements – online or offline – with learners of different backgrounds and goals, sharing attention, knowledge, and an emotional experience when interacting with each other. Such a focus translates to studies that advance theories of learning, innovate instructional designs, and develop technological models, tools, and architectures for learning. We are calling for studies that address various topics that can be allocated to, but are not limited to the following strands:

Expanding CSCL Perspectives & Educational Innovation

Relating to the shared theme of the ISLS Annual Meeting, “International Collaboration toward Educational Innovation for All: Overarching Research, Development, and Practices”, we call for papers that present new perspectives on how and why learning together works (or not) and how CSCL addresses specific learning processes and goals within and beyond formal requirements, such as the development of shared values and identities. This includes papers that

  • Address diversity, equity, and access in and through participation in social forms of learning
  • Analyze and facilitate learning through argumentation and dialogue for social and argumentative skills, creativity, and empowerment
  • Advance methods for analyzing CSCL, e.g. through multimodal process analysis or learning analytics
  • Take group level perspectives on motivation and emotion
  • Take cutting edge perspectives on social learning, such as an explicit focus on embodiment

CSCL in Context

Since experiencing emergency distance learning and online collaboration in times of crisis, practitioners and researchers in teaching and learning have realized how the technological surround influences the processes of learning and collaboration and how essentially social learning is, be it in small groups of learners working on a defined task together, in massive courses with extensive curricula, or continuously developing communities of learners. This includes, for instance, papers that

  • Address social aspects of learning in schools, workplaces, and informal contexts, e.g., through social media
  • Focus on small groups of learners working on well-defined or open-ended tasks
  • Research the development of communities of learners
  • Investigate intercultural scenarios of learning together
  • Orchestrate online and offline formats of social learning, e.g. in MOOCs or in co-present environments

Design for CSCL

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) build a general digital ecosystem for processing information, as well as the backbone for hardware and software dedicated to specific purposes of learning and instruction. Creation, organization, and analysis of learning processes is strongly guided and influenced by the supporting technologies. Innovation in CSCL is to a large part driven by the technological developments, which enable novel practices and inspire theoretical perspectives on learning. We therefore call for papers that make substantial technical and/or design-knowledge contributions that, for instance,

  • Develop instructional designs and technologies for guidance and feedback, e.g. through peers, scripts, awareness and orchestration tools in CSCL
  • Implement adaptive support for learners through learning analytics and AI
  • Explore technological innovations, such as simulations, VR, & AR for CSCL
  • Present the application of digital technologies that facilitate the social learning processes or the analysis of rich social learning data

The field of research CSCL has always thrived on its multiplicity, taking multiple theoretical perspectives, applying a large bandwidth of innovative methods for analyzing learning processes, and connecting technical innovation with advancement of theoretical understanding. The sweet spot of CSCL is the cross-fertilization among multiple disciplines. We therefore offer a variety of publication formats, including the newly developed format of demos that allow to showcase technical innovation:

  • Full papers (8 pages) for mature work that builds on and advances the conceptual background of learning together, elaborating on methods, data, and analysis. Full paper submissions should state: (a) the major issue(s) addressed, (b) potential significance of the work, (c) the theoretical and methodological approach(es) pursued, (d) major findings and/or technology/design contributions, conclusions, implications, and (e) relevant scholarly references.
  • Short papers (4 pages) for work that makes significant contributions, but that is of smaller scale, targeting specific instructional innovations, or that can be reported briefly. Otherwise, the same criteria apply as listed for full papers above.
  • Technology innovation papers (4 pages) have the same format as short papers. TI papers propose and describe interactive applications, learning analytics tools and methods, agent-based systems, robotics and other hardware technologies in educational contexts. TI papers will be reviewed with a focus on technology and computer science. They can be presented as interactive demos or as paper presentations.
  • Posters (2 pages) for work in progress and for novel and promising ideas. The two-page abstract should identify the aspect of the work that will likely lead to productive discussions with conference participants in a poster session, including figures as visual support.
  • Symposia (8 pages) for conveying larger ideas or results about a specific issue. Discussion among members of the symposium and with the audience should be moderated to focus on certain positions or controversies. It is not sufficient for a symposium to simply be a set of related papers, such as papers from a specific research group. Rather, symposia proposals will be evaluated on their capacity to address larger issues of interest to the CSCL community. A clear description should provide:
    • The overall focus of the symposium
    • The major issues addressed or overarching/integrative points illustrated by the collective work
    • How the collective presentations contribute towards the issues or points raised
    • The significance of the contributions
    • Separate, brief descriptions of the content of each presentation should be included in the 8-page submission

Submissions must follow the formatting instructions of their respective submission category. All papers will be subjected to peer review by an international program committee. The Program Committee reserves the right to determine whether a submitted paper is accepted for presentation as a long paper, short paper, or poster. All accepted papers and posters will be published in the proceedings.

Submission instructions

Please submit your proposal at easychair.org/conferences/?conf=isls2022. Submissions now closed.

To prepare your submission, please use:

Please note that papers and posters will be reviewed blind. Please prepare your papers accordingly and see the ISLS Template for suggestions. Symposia will NOT be blind reviewed, so please include author information in the proposal, thanks.