Designing an Online Jigsaw Puzzle Task to Assess Collaborative Problem-Solving Skills

Competency in Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS) is recognized as one of the core skills for the 21stcentury workforce. However, the field of CPS research needs a multi-validated assessment task that can enhance student engagement and provide rich learning analytics evidence for researchers. This paper introduces a gamebased CPS task, Mondrian Geometric Fantasy (MGF), designed to meet these needs. The MGF task is a Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) task, integrating cognitive, motivational, emotional, and sociocultural dimensions in its design, fulfilling the fundamental conditions of collaborative learning. Moreover, the Design-Based Research approach and the Conceptual Assessment Framework were employed to guide the development of the task. After a small-scale focus group testing, the developers refined the MGF task based on the feedback received. The optimized MGF task underwent three rounds of implementation and validation in real-world settings. The results showed that students generally had a high level of satisfaction and engagement in the MGF task, and they demonstrated CPS skills in the MGF task. Moreover, it was observed that domain knowledge involved in the MGF task did not adversely affect students' performance. A large-scale dataset suitable for learning analysis was successfully collected and is being put into research.