Temporal group interaction density in collaborative problem solving: Exploring group interactions with different time granularities

Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS) has received increasing attention for its role in promoting learners' cognitive and social development in STEM education. However, little is known about how learners interact dynamically within a group at different time granularities. This gap mainly resulted from overlooking the time dimension of interactions, leading to a lack of nuanced understanding of moment-to-moment interaction in CPS. In this study, we demonstrated the potential of temporal group interaction density in modeling online CPS interactions and investigated the impact of temporal interaction density on CPS processes and outcomes. Specifically, we proposed using cumulative weighted density to measure the holistic state of group interactions and explained the differences in group interactions with different collaborative performance and interaction densities by modeling the transition and evolution of interaction sequences through Apriori and cumulative relative centrality. Results indicated that group interaction density cannot directly predict their collaborative performance, but notable differences in interaction patterns existed in the high-performance groups with different interaction densities, while low-performance groups showed interactive commonalities towards the completion of CPS. The findings of this study guided the design of CPS interventions and supported the process mining of CPS interactions, with vital practical implications for CPS assessment and skills development.