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Introduction

One of the central tenets of modern computer science is that it is a collaborative discipline. The importance of collaboration is emphasized in the new K-12 Computer Science Framework, and collaboration is increasingly emphasized in the computer science industry and by professional societies. Relatedly, curricular frameworks such as the Next-Generation Science Standards also emphasize collaboration and computational thinking as practices that students must engage in “across all grade bands.” Yet, many students reach high school and college without ever learning to collaborate well, particularly with diverse peers. The FLECKS project will create a collaborative computer science learning environment for upper elementary school classrooms, addressing the pressing need for young students to develop fundamental computer science competencies and collaboration practices. This project is led by PI Kristy Boyer at the University of Florida, and PI Eric Wiebe and co-PI Collin Lynch at North Carolina State University.

Project Description

The FLECKS project will provide the potentially transformative opportunity for upper elementary students to learn computer science and build strong collaboration practices. Leveraging the great promise of virtual learning companions, we will address the following three thrusts. 1) We will collect datasets of collaborative learning for computer science in diverse upper elementary school classrooms. Our initial dataset will provide a ground-truth measure of students' collaboration approaches to classroom computer science learning tasks. 2) We will design, develop, and iteratively refine FLECKS' intelligent virtual learning companions, which support dyads of students in a scaffolded computer science learning environment with an interactive online coding tool. The technical innovation of FLECKS is the way in which student dyads are supported: each pair of children within the elementary school classroom will interact with a dyad of state-of-the-art intelligent virtual learning companions. These companions will enhance the classroom experience by adapting in real time to the students' patterns of collaboration and problem solving to provide tailored support specifically for that pair of students. 3) We will generate research findings and evidence about how children collaborate in computer science learning, and how best to support their collaboration with intelligent virtual learning companions.

publications

2024
[21]	The impact of near-peer virtual agents on computer science attitudes and collaborative dialogue. Toni Earle-Randell, Joseph Wiggins, Yingbo Ma, Mehmet Celepkolu, Dolly Bounajim, Zhikai Gao, Julianna Martinez Ruiz, Kristy Elizabeth Boyer, Maya Israel, Collin Lynch, Eric Wiebe. International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction, vol. 40, 2024, pp. 100646. [bib] [doi]
2023
[20]	Confusion, Conflict, Consensus: Modeling Dialogue Processes during Collaborative Learning with Hidden Markov Models. Toni V Earle-Randell, Joseph B. Wiggins, Julianna Martinez Ruiz, Mehmet Celepkolu, Kristy Elizabeth Boyer, Collin F. Lynch, Maya Israel, Eric Wiebe. The 24th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education, 2023, pp. 615-626. [bib]
2022
[19]	"I remember how to do it": Exploring Upper Elementary Students' Collaborative Regulation while Pair Programming Using Epistemic Network Analysis. Jessica Vandenberg, Collin Lynch, Kristy Elizabeth Boyer, Eric Wiebe. Computer Science Education, 2022, pp. 1-29. [bib] [doi]
[18]	It’s Challenging but Doable: Lessons Learned from a Remote Collaborative Coding Camp for Elementary Students. Yingbo Ma, Julianna Martinez Ruiz, Timothy D. Brown, Kiana-Alize Diaz, Adam M. Gaweda, Mehmet Celepkolu, Kristy Elizabeth Boyer, Collin F. Lynch, Eric Wiebe. Proceedings of the 53rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE), 2022, pp. 342-348. [bib] [doi]
[17]	Building the Dream Team: Children's Reactions to Virtual Agents That Model Collaborative Talk. Joseph B Wiggins, Toni V Earle-Randell, Dolly Bounajim, Yingbo Ma, Julianna Martinez Ruiz, Ruohan Liu, Mehmet Celepkolu, Maya Israel, Eric Wiebe, Collin F Lynch, Kristy Elizabeth Boyer. Proceedings of the 22nd ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, 2022, pp. 1-8. [bib] [doi]
2021
[16]	The Challenge of Noisy Classrooms: Speaker Detection During Elementary Students’ Collaborative Dialogue. Yingbo Ma, Joseph B. Wiggins, Mehmet Celepkolu, Kristy Elizabeth Boyer, Collin Lynch, Eric Wiebe. Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education, 2021, pp. 268-281. [bib] [doi]
[15]	Collaborative Dialogue and Types of Conflict: An Analysis of Pair Programming Interactions between Upper Elementary Students. Jennifer Tsan, Jessica Vandenberg, Zarifa Zakaria, Danielle C. Boulden, Collin Lynch, Eric Wiebe, Kristy Elizabeth Boyer. Proceedings of the 52nd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE), 2021, pp. 1184-1190. [bib] [doi]
[14]	Two-Computer Pair Programming: Exploring a Feedback Intervention to Improve Collaborative Talk in Elementary Students. Zarifa Zakaria, Jessica Vandenberg, Jennifer Tsan, Danielle Boulden, Collin F. Lynch, Kristy Elizabeth Boyer, Eric Wiebe. Computer Science Education, 2021, pp. 1-28. [bib] [doi]
[13]	The Foundations of Collaborative Programming by Elementary-Aged Children. Jessica Vandenberg, Zarifa Zakaria, Collin Lynch, Kristy Elizabeth Boyer, Eric Wiebe. Campbell L.O., Hartshorne R., DeMara R.F. (eds) Perspectives on Digitally-Mediated Team Learning. Educational Communications and Technology: Issues and Innovations, 2021, pp. 53-72. [bib] [doi]
[12]	Prompting collaborative and exploratory discourse: An epistemic network analysis study. Jessica Vandenberg, Zarifa Zakaria, Jennifer Tsan, Anna Iwanski, Collin Lynch, Kristy Elizabeth Boyer, Eric Wiebe. International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning, vol. 16 no. 3, 2021, pp. 1-28. [bib] [doi]
[11]	Interaction effects of race and gender in elementary CS attitudes: A validation and cross-sectional study. Jessica Vandenberg, Arif Rachmatullah, Collin Lynch, Kristy Elizabeth Boyer, Eric Wiebe. International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction, vol. 29 no. 100293, 2021, pp. 1-11. [bib] [doi]
2020
[10]	Elementary Students' Understanding of CS Terms. Jessica Vandenberg, Jennifer Tsan, Danielle Boulden, Zarifa Zakaria, Collin Lynch, Kristy Elizabeth Boyer, Eric Wiebe. ACM Transactions on Computing Education (TOCE), vol. 20 no. 3, 2020, pp. 1-19. [bib] [doi]
[9]	A Comparison of Two Pair Programming Configurations for Upper Elementary Students. Jennifer Tsan, Jessica Vandenberg, Zarifa Zakaria, Joseph B. Wiggins, Alexander R. Webber, Amanda Bradbury, Collin Lynch, Eric Wiebe, Kristy Elizabeth Boyer. Proceedings of the 51st ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE), Portland, Oregon, 2020, pp. 346-352. [bib] [doi]
2019
[8]	The Interface Design of a Collaborative Computer Science Learning Environment for Elementary Aged Students. Amanda Bradbury, Eric Wiebe, Jessica Vandenberg, Jennifer Tsan, Collin Lynch, Kristy Boyer. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 2019, pp. 493-497. [bib]
[7]	Collaborative Talk Across Two Pair-Programming Configurations. Zarifa Zakaria, Danielle Boulden, Jessica Vandenberg, Jennifer Tsan, Collin F. Lynch, Eric N. Wiebe, Kristy Elizabeth Boyer. Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL), 2019, pp. 224-231. [bib]
[6]	From Doodles to Designs: Participatory Pedagogical Agent Design with Elementary Students. Joseph B. Wiggins, Jamieka Wilkinson, Lara Baigorria, Yingwen Huang, Kristy Elizabeth Boyer, Collin Lynch, Eric Wiebe. Proceedings of the 18th ACM International Conference on Interaction Design and Children, 2019, pp. 642-647. [bib] [doi]
[5]	The Development and Validation of Survey Items on Upper Elementary Students' Perspectives and Attitudes on CS. Jessica Vandenberg, Jennifer Tsan, Zarifa Zakaria, Kristy Elizabeth Boyer, Collin Lynch, Eric Wiebe. Proceedings of the 50th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE), 2019, pp. 1254. [bib] [doi]
[4]	"I Impressed Myself With How Confident I Felt": Reflections on a Computer Science Assessment for K-8 Teachers. Hannah E. Chipman, Fernando J. Rodríguez, Kristy Elizabeth Boyer. Proceedings of the 50th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE), 2019, pp. 1081-1087. [bib] [doi]
2018
[3]	User Affect and No-Match Dialogue Scenarios: An Analysis of Facial Expression. Joseph B. Wiggins, Mayank Kulkarni, Wookhee Min, Kristy Elizabeth Boyer, Bradford Mott, Eric Wiebe, James Lester. Proceedings of the 4th International Workshop on Multimodal Analyses enabling Artificial Agents in Human-Machine Interaction (MA3HMI), 2018, pp. 6-14. [bib] [doi]
[2]	"Alright, What Do We Need?": A Study of Young Coders’ Collaborative Dialogue. Jennifer Tsan, Collin F. Lynch, Kristy Elizabeth Boyer. International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction, vol. 17, 2018, pp. 61-71. [bib] [doi]
[1]	"I Think We Should...": Analyzing Elementary Students' Collaborative Processes for Giving and Taking Suggestions. Jennifer Tsan, Fernando J. Rodríguez, Kristy Elizabeth Boyer, Collin Lynch. Proceedings of the 49th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE), Baltimore, Maryland, 2018, pp. 622-627. [bib] [doi]