Monitoring Collaboration in Flexible and Personal Learning Environments

Both virtual and personal learning environments (VLEs and PLEs) are technologies widely used with educational purposes. Moreover, there also exists a pedagogical trend towards the development of high-level competences, such as the capacity to work collaboratively in a group. These two trends come together within the field of computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL). The evaluation of CSCL situations requires to take into account, among other things, the process of collaboration. In response to this need, a number of collaboration analysis tools have been developed. However, the use of these tools in the decentralized scenarios typically found when integrating third-party external in VLEs and PLEs is a complex matter: the information retrieved and the access to it are heterogeneous; and the lack of data sharing standards between the learning software and the analysis tools reduces the probability of compatibility. The present work aims to delve into the problem of the integration of collaboration analysis tools and learning software. A solution is proposed to support monitoring in an architecture that already integrates third-party external tools in PLEs and VLEs named GLUE!. The proposal is illustrated by means of an example based on a real CSCL experience that took place in a course at our University.