Sean P. Goggins

• Ph.D
• Professor at University of Missouri

With the guidance of the Evidence-Centered Design (ECD) framework, we systematically implement stealth assessment for the serious game Mission HydroSci (MHS) and empirically evaluate its effectiveness using combinations of features derived from gameplay and their analysis using computational models. We show that adaptive stealth assessment implemen...

Sociotechnical research increasingly includes the social sub-networks that emerge from large-scale sociotechnical infrastructure, including the infrastructure for building open source software. This paper addresses these numerous sub-networks as advantageous for researchers. It provides a methodological synthesis focusing on how researchers can bes...

It is well known that corporations rely on open source software as part of their product development lifecycle. Given these commitments, understanding the health of open source communities is a central concern in today's business setting. Our research uses social comparison theory as a framework for understanding how open source communities conside...

The construction of prediction models reflecting players’ learning performance in serious games currently faces various challenges for learning analytics. In this study, we design, implement, and field test a learning analytics system for a serious game, advancing the field by explicitly showing which in-game features correspond to differences in l...

We explore the Community Health Analytics for Open Source Software project and how it plays an integral role in the automation of key measures to make the state of open source readily observable.

This paper focuses on evaluating a socio-cultural activity design (SCAD) model for using discussion-based social networking tools as a means to support the development of an online community of learners. Participants included 38 undergraduate students enrolled in a human-centered design course at a large, US university. The SCAD model includes conc...

Open source projects are transforming. Today, work within open source projects has come to be influenced by a growing set of companies and individuals who receive financial remuneration for their engagement. As such, there is a central focus on commoditization and commercialization of open source products, which drives a trend towards a concealment...

Distance Learning through game-based 3D virtual learning environments has promise for helping rural and other communities that have become increasingly dependent upon online learning to meet the Next Generation Science Standards. The team developing Mission HydroSci (MHS) envisions a learning product that integrates a game-based 3D VLE with a learn...

The rapid acceleration of corporate engagement with open source projects is drawing out new ways for CSCW researchers to consider the dynamics of these projects. Research must now consider the complex ecosystems within which open source projects are situated, including issues of for-profit motivations, brokering foundations, and corporate collabora...

The experience of work is fundamentally a story of the labor of people, groups and project organizations. Work’s future relies on a conquering of challenges unique to distributed, multi-disciplinary teams likely to increase in dominance. These demands are perturbed byproducts of how humans perceive their own and others performance. In this paper we...

Researchers, governments, and funding agencies are calling on research disciplines to embrace open data - data that is publicly accessible and usable beyond the original authors. The premise is that research efforts can draw and generate several benefits from open data, as such data might provide further insight, enabling the replication and extens...

While online behavior creates an enormous amount of digital data that can be the basis for social science research, to date, the science has been conducted piecemeal, one Internet address at a time, often without social or scholarly impact beyond the site’s own stakeholders. Scientists lack the tools, methods, and practices to combine, compare, con...

Mission HydroSci is a game-based 3D virtual environment for enacting transformational role-playing for middle school science students. Student-players will be engaged in a narrative about needing to investigate water resources and use scientific argumentation to complete missions critical to the survival and accomplishments of the members of their...

Open online communities produce an enormous amount of digital data. To date, open online community science has been conducted piecemeal, one internet address at a time, often without social or scholarly impact beyond one's own research. The Open Community Data Exchange (OCDX) addresses this issue and develops a metadata specification and community...

We propose a workshop that builds on prior CSCW workshops focused on building a shared technical, social, and methodological infrastructure for more transparently sharing: a) data connected to social computing papers, b) methods and software built to analyze that data, and c) a common set of ethical practices built to address issues emerging in soc...

This poster presents an exploratory method used to analyze the geography of Twitter use. A shift has taken place in political speech from local to diffuse online environments, which necessitates the use of new tools and methods to analyze discourse. As such, this study presents a geo-spatial analysis of tweets to members of the U.S. Congress in 201...

While online behavior creates an enormous amount of digital data that can be the basis for social science research, to date, the science has been conducted piecemeal, one internet address at a time, often without social or scholarly impact beyond the site's own stakeholders. Scientists lack the tools, methods, and practices to combine, compare, con...

Social media provides a rich environment for understanding social connections, interactions and information sharing across many aspects of society. The relative ease of access to social media data through provision of application program interface's (API) by social media companies has led to a significant number of studies that attempt to understan...

Technology has been promoted as a way to facilitate interactions across disparate groups of people. Political discourse has been historically constrained by geographic proximity of participants. The introduction of the Internet and specifically social media has altered these geographic constraints and political discourse is now one of the most prev...

This exploratory study focuses on the design and evaluation of teaching analytics that relate social learning structure with performance measures in a massive open online course (MOOC) prototype environment. Using reflexive analysis of online learning trace data and qualitative performance measures we present an exploratory empirical study that: (a...

Social support can significantly improve health outcomes for individuals living with disease, and online forums have emerged as an important vehicle for social support. Whereas research has focused on the delivery and use of social support, little is known about how these communities are sustained. We describe one sociotechnical mechanism that enab...

Despite being freely accessible, open online community data can be difficult to use effectively. To access and analyze large amounts of data, researchers must become familiar with the meaning of data values. Then they must also find a way to obtain and process the datasets to extract their desired vectors of behavior and content. This process is fr...

A good deal of Twitter research focuses on event-detection using algorithms that rely on keywords and tweet density. We present an alternative analysis of tweets, filtering by hashtags related to the 2012 Superbowl and validated against the 2013 baseball World Series. We analyze low-volume, topically similar tweets which reference specific plays (s...

Distance Learning through game-based 3D virtual learning environments has promise for helping rural and other communities that have become increasingly dependent upon online learning to meet the Next Generation Science Standards. The team developing Mission HydroSci (MHS) envisions a learning product that integrates a game-based 3D VLE with a learn...

Context: the ability to follow other users and projects on GitHub has introduced a new layer of open source software development participants who observe but do not contribute to projects. It has not been fully explored how following others influences the actions of GitHub users. Objective: this paper studies the motivation behind following (or no...

Humanitarian Free and Open Source Software (HFOSS) is a category of free and open source software that improves the human condition. HFOSS projects focus on a range of societal needs including microfinance, healthcare, education, and disaster relief. Many HFOSS projects are developed by international teams whose goal is to make the world a better p...

Social media creates a geographically independent commons that transforms citizen participation in political discourse. In our study, we examine 185,420 publicly available Twitter messages during a Republican primary debate in November 2011, hosted by CNN and viewed by over 3.5 million individuals in the United States. We identify how activity diff...

The discovery of stable, heavy-tailed distributions of activity on the web has inspired many researchers to search for simple mechanisms that can cut through the complexity of countless social interactions to yield powerful new theories about human behavior. A dominant mode of investigation involves fitting a mathematical model to an observed distr...

Previous studies have invested effort in understanding, which factors affect student learning, and how from isolated perspectives. Based on social cognitive theory, this study proposes two dynamic CSCL models of learning using understudied factors – system functionality, social ability, collective efficacy and social interaction – to examine the me...

Building a student performance prediction model that is both practical and understandable for users is a challenging task fraught with confounding factors to collect and measure. Most current prediction models are difficult for teachers to interpret. This poses significant problems for model use (e.g. personalizing education and intervention) as we...

Assessment in Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) is an implicit issue, and most assessments are summative in nature. Process-oriented methods of assessment can vary significantly in their indicators and typically only partially address the complexity of group learning. Moreover, the majority of these assessment methods require time-in...

Learning analytics (LA) has invested much effort in the investigation of students' behavior and performance within learning systems. This paper expands the influence of LA to students' behavior outside of learning systems and describes a novel machine learning model which automatically detects students' off-task behavior as students interact with a...

We propose a full day workshop focused on characterizing areas of research within the domain of Open Collaboration Systems (OCS's) where partnerships between academic and industry researchers can both increase our scientific understanding of OCS's and also support those systems through research. This workshop's purpose is to bring together research...

This study proposes a process-oriented, automatic, formative assessment model for small group learning based on complex systems theory using a small dataset from a technology-mediated, synchronous mathematics learning environment. We first conceptualize small group learning as a complex system and explain how group dynamics and interaction can be m...

In this paper, we apply concepts from Distributed Leadership, a theory suggesting that leadership is shared among members of an organization, to frame models of contribution that we uncover in five relatively successful open source software (OSS) projects hosted on GitHub. In this qualitative, comparative case study, we show how these projects make...

This full-day workshop focuses on building Big Social Data research competencies for scholars interested in issues of contribution quality and contributor performance in online coproduction systems that generate value through contributions by volunteers. The workshop is designed to engage discussion and promote co-working through a hackathon format...

The purpose of this design case is to tell the story of our work to design context-aware activity notification for learning management systems. The story of the design experience is not simple, in that it includes research and development, conceptual evolution, implementation and extinction, and multiple phases, including inspiration for future pro...

In this article, the authors synthesize 3 years of social technologies research, including studies of Facebook, Twitter, and GitHub, to present a theory driven framework to guide future social scientific research using “Big Data.” They connect levels of analysis derived from empirical study of influence to the electronic trace data generated by soc...

This paper presents the results of a 9-month ethnographic and action research study of rural technology workers where computer support for collaborative learning through workplace technologies was introduced to a US-based technology firm. Throughout the implementation of this support and participation, issues related to geographic isolation are con...

This paper focuses on evaluating a theoretically informed approach to using social media as a means to support the development of a community of learners in an introductory human computer interaction course at a major US research university. Social network and communication analysis were used to examine the form and function of social interactions...

In this paper we propose an automated strategy to assess participation in a multi-mode math discourse environment called Virtual Math Teams with Geogrebra (VMTwG). A holistic participation clustering algorithm is applied through the lens of activity theory. Our activity theory-informed algorithm is a step toward accelerating heuristic approaches to...

The focus of this panel is the pragmatics of data sharing as framed by the needs and pressures of scholarly work. Panelists represent a lively blend of quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods researchers with recent experiences in developing and sharing data. Panelists will present research and address questions related to data collection and m...

Online Communities data is prevalent in CSCW research, but the approaches to collecting, managing, analyzing and visualizing large scale social data varies on a lab by lab basis. The OCData hackathon is aimed at creating a community opportunity to share approaches to online communities research at the level of data. Integrating data, tools and theo...

This workshop paper describes automated assessment of CSCL groups based on activity theory. In contrast to our prior work, the algorithms and analysis presented here focus entirely at the small group unit of analysis. The work presented is exploratory and preliminary in nature. It is our hope to refine it through participation in this workshop.

In this exploratory study, we present and apply an automated student participation analysis method derived from activity theory. We show how it can be used in a specific computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environment (Virtual Math Teams with Geogrebra-VMTwG), and provide holistic analysis of individual student participation according...

Multivocal analysis applies two or more research methods to the same data set and then applies reflexivity in a joint analysis to achieve greater insights than would be possible with a single method. In this pilot study, we demonstrate how the application of specific methods are influenced by the ordering of the methods, and present a guideline for...

Teams meet in 3D virtual worlds more frequently than ever before, yet the tools for evaluating 3D collaboration environments are underdeveloped. To close the 3D collaboration tool evaluation gap, the authors integrate lessons from the gaming industry and distributed work research. They develop two complementary approaches. First, the individual use...

This book fills the void between existing works in Computer-Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW) and Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL). CSCL and CSCW each make important and distinct contributions to the construction of collaborative workplace learning and this book fully encapsulates the emerging application of collaborative learning...

A few studies have attempted to provide metrics of success in open source software (OSS) projects but the role a code hosting workspace plays in how performance is viewed and measured is little examined. We conducted qualitative, exploratory research with lead and core developers on three successful projects on GitHub to understand how OSS communit...

This chapter is for practitioners and also serves as a wrap-up considering the entire book. In this chapter, the reader will find a summary and implications on how to apply and use CSCL@Work at the workplace.

Humanitarian Free and Open Source Software (HFOSS) projects provide a real-world application with an approachable and welcoming community for both faculty and students. Many faculty members are excited by the prospect of their students contributing to HFOSS. They perceive it as an opportunity to engage students, regardless of race or gender, in pro...

We synthesize social informatics and regional studies literature to frame an examination of the role of information and communication technologies ICT uptake and use in the social experience of distance in a rural technology firm. Though distance is much talked about and regarded as a critical dimension in distributed work, the distinct ways that d...

We present a methodological approach, called Group Informatics, for understanding the social connections that are created between members of technologically mediated groups. Our methodological approach supports focused thinking about how online groups differ from each other, and diverge from their face-to-face counterparts. Group Informatics is gro...

Little attention has been given to understanding how technology is used to bridge social and geographical boundaries between metropolitan and rural firms in developed nations like the United States. In this paper we draw on theory from social worlds to contrast the introduction and integration of collaboration technologies in two small (23-53 emplo...

We present a methodological approach, called Group Informatics, for understanding the social connections that are created between members of technologically mediated groups. Our methodological approach supports focused thinking about how online groups differ from each other, and diverge from their face-to-face counterparts. Group Informatics is gro...

This in-progress research study investigates middle school students’ use of a wiki-based e-learning platform as a coordinating representation in the context of their guided discovery-based game design work. The study aims to (a) consider/validate the quality of wiki trace data and Google Analytics page read data as a source of insight for research;...

Introduction to Technologically Mediated Relationship Creation and Maintenance

The relationship between group performance and structure in completely online, large scale CSCL learning environments is examined inconsistently. In this study, we examine a set of eight completely online graduate student learning groups in a large scale, asynchronous, fully distributed CSCL environment. We connect group awareness to performance wi...

This book fills the void between existing works in Computer-Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW) and Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL). CSCL and CSCW each make important and distinct contributions to the construction of collaborative workplace learning and this book fully encapsulates the emerging application of collaborative learning...

Teams meet in 3D virtual worlds more frequently than ever before, yet the tools for evaluating 3D collaboration environments are underdeveloped. To close the 3D collaboration tool evaluation gap, the authors integrate lessons from the gaming industry and distributed work research. They develop two complementary approaches. First, the individual use...

This chapter situates collaborative information behavior in completely online groups as a phenomenon distinct from prior work understanding collaborative information behavior in face-to-face groups, free and open source software groups and Wikipedia groups. The unexpected diversity of information resources utilized by completely online group member...

Social computational systems emerge in the wild on popular social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, but there remains confusion about the relationship between social interactions and the technical traces of interaction left behind through use. Twitter interactions and social experience are particularly challenging to make sense of because...

We propose an interdisciplinary workshop to explore key design principles of collaborative learning in the workplace. The workshop's theme is, simply "CSCL at the workplace". Our first workshop at ACM Group 2010, and the resulting book, raise an important set of issues and potentials for research, but does not solve the thorny and controversial iss...

We present a preliminary analysis of #widebate, a hashtag to identify discourse related to two debates in the June 2012, Wisconsin Gubernatorial recall election. Our analysis identifies the differences in discourse between the two debates. We find that only 14% of individuals participate in discourse surrounding both of the debates. Further, we ide...

In the following document we detail what we identify as the Wisconsin Gubernatorial Recall Twitter Corpus. This dataset represents two and half months of collection surrounding and incorporating the June 2012 Wisconsin Gubernatorial Election collected using the Group Informatics Lab Infrastructure TwitterZombie at Drexel University (Black, Mascaro,...

The authors introduce Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) at the workplace (CSCL@Work) as a conceptual framework for bridging the knowledge of researchers in the field of CSCL to work-based learning. In contemporary firms, shepherding the creation of new knowledge is of equal importance, and is driven by two primary research questions....

We describe a method for determining coordination requirements in collaborative software development. Our method uses "live" data based on developer activity rather than relying on historical data such as source code commits which is prevalent in existing methods. We introduce proximity, a measure of the strength of the work dependencies that lead...

Our actions and opinions - "what we know and believe, how we behave and make decisions" - are embedded in and shaped by webs of social relationships. Small individual actions that flow within networks can lead to broad systemic dynamics that fundamentally impact how societies function economically, socially, and culturally. Social technology provid...

There are two ontological constructs that are referenced in our description of Group Informatics. First, the groups that form in these asynchronous environments are referred to as small, naturally asynchronous groups (SNAGs) to distinguish them from previous conceptualizations of physical groups, such as distributed teams, virtual organizations, di...

We introduce Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) at the workplace (CSCL@Work) as a conceptual framework for bridging the knowledge of researchers in the field of CSCL to work-based learning. Research in the field of Organizational Learning emerged in 1978, and gathered increased attention beginning in the 1990s when the questions were...

This is the intended seminal comparison of Groups, Communities and Networks in Online Environments

Political groups on social networking sites enable a new type of collaborative, political discourse among citizens. In this study, we show how political discourse in social media is distinct from prior studies of political groups on the Internet. Specifically, we use network analysis in combination with communication theory to examine conversationa...

The Internet and social media create a geographically independent virtual town square (Kavanaugh, Perez-Quinones, Tedesco, & Sanders, 2010) that transforms citizen participation in political discourse. In our study, we examine over 185,420 publically available Twitter messages (hashtag #CNNDebate) during a Republican Primary Debate in November 2011...

We frame the exercise of control through social media not as power-over or oppression, but in its broader sense, as " purposive influence toward a predetermined goal ". We focus on one growing channel of control; social media use for official communication between government agencies and the public. This paper introduces a framework for analyzing s...

The activity of the Facebook Group, “Join the Coffee Party Movement” (Coffee Party), is studied during a seven-month period leading up to and following the 2010 United States Midterm election. During this time period, the Coffee Party Facebook Group Administrator account posted 872 parent posts, which received 152,762 comments from participants. We...