Mass Collaboration and Learning: Opportunities, Challenges, and Influential Factors

Abstract

Learning ecosystems can benefit from mass collaboration where large numbers of minds collectively drive intellectual efforts to learn in the form of knowledge building and sharing. Mass collaborative learning represents a significant shift away from traditional teacher-centered approach towards a self-directed model in virtual communities in which contributing members take on creative roles to maximize their learning and that of their peers. In order to design, implement, and exploit such a learning approach, influencing constituents should be identified, and appropriate conditions need to be provided. This study aims to systematically review recent literature with a view to identifying relevant affecting constituents and success factors for mass collaboration and learning—namely, the type of organizational structures, collaborative learning techniques, adopted technologies, and methods for evaluating the quality of both members’ performance, and co-created knowledge. Therefore, 100 related papers are collected, and their findings are critically evaluated. The results of evaluation are then addressed and discussed.

Collaborative Networks: A Pillar of Digital Transformation

“…Wikipedia, Digg, SETI@home, Scratch, Galaxyzoo, etc. are some of those examples [105]. Provision of integrated business services through collaboration of multiple stakeholders has been an emphasized topic in several research works [80,89,106].…”

Sustainable in Action: From Intention to Environmentally Friendly Practices in Makerspaces Based on the Theory of Reasoned Action

“…Community in this context should not necessarily be understood in the classical sociological sense of a tightly woven social network, but refers to a connection that can be independent of spatial proximity or even an active social relationship and is rather established through shared practices (Grabher and Ibert, 2014). But regardless of the level of expertise and professionalization all those communities are bodies of collaborative learning and collective knowledge (Zamiri and Camarinha-Matos, 2019). Makerspaces are therefore, to a large extent places of learning and usually indeed see themselves as such (Sheridan et al, 2014;Unterfrauner et al, 2020).…”

Meta-Governance Framework to Guide the Establishment of Mass Collaborative Learning Communities

“…For instance, the application of computer-supported collaborative learning tools has enabled the MCL communities to create innovative socio-technical environments where learners can collectively and/or independently work on specific modules and topics, facilitating innovative and decentralized learning [12,17]. The latest developments (e.g., various sophisticated communication channels [5], the ability to solve complex problems [7], and the increased quality of learning materials [8]) in current examples of MCL (e.g., some cases of MOOCs, Scratch) have influenced the education and learning ecosystem to a great extent. As such, the shreds of evidence show that the MCL system has been fairly successful in participatory knowledge acquisition, creation, preservation, sharing, assessment, and development [10,11].…”

“…In the informal process of learning that is implicit in MCL, cross-functional collaboration, peer-to-peer learning, and crowdsourcing are the predominant strategies. As this new trend of learning continues to grow, it will require preparation for changing the nature of learning practices [5,6].…”