Experiences at the Open University of Catalonia with the Virtualization of Live Collaborative Learning in Support for Engineering Education

In previous research we proposed a new type of learning object named Collaborative Complex Learning Object (CC-LO) in support for teaching and learning engineering education by the virtualization of live collaborative sessions, with the aim to leverage the knowledge elicited during the collaboration and produce interactive and attractive resources to be played by learners. We claim this type of pedagogically and technologically augmented learning resources is able to overcome endemic problems found in collaborative learning of on-line engineering courses, such as lack of authentic interactivity, user empowerment, social identity and challenge, thus having a positive effect in learner engagement. In this paper we report on the experiences gained in the production, deployment, experimentation and validation of the CC-LO approach from the live collaborative sessions occurring in real on-line engineering courses of the Open University of Catalonia (UOC). The ultimate goal is to evaluate and validate how our approach can support engineering education at the UOC, and in particular observe the impact on the collaborative learning performance during the on-line discussions. The novelty of this paper is the integration of our approach into the actual phpBB-based Web forums that support specific engineering courses at the UOC and in particular their in-class discussion processes and collaborative activities.