Coopetition in Education: Redefining Collaborative Learning Through Design-based Research

The book explores the development of coopetition designs aimed at enhancing student collaborative learning, addressing persistent challenges such as low individual accountability and the associated free-rider issue.

Moving beyond the long-standing and inconclusive debates between collaboration and competition, the book embraces the concept of coopetition―a hybrid approach that merges the strengths of both collaboration and competition while mitigating their respective weaknesses. The author develops two initial coopetition designs: social-comparison coopetition and zero-sum coopetition, both of which underwent rigorous examination and refinement through three iterative research cycles, followed by the design-based research methodology. He reveals that social-comparison coopetition consistently outperformed other designs across all cycles, demonstrating enhanced student motivation, engagement, and self-regulated learning. By contrast, while zero-sum coopetition showed slight advantages in one-off applications, its repeated use required careful handling. In conclusion, the book introduces two key design principles that define the core components and appropriate contexts for implementing coopetition, with a particular emphasis on social-comparison coopetition.

The book will be valuable for researchers, educators, and teachers looking for new theories and strategies to enhance collaborative learning.

Xinghua Wang is a full professor at Qingdao University. His research focuses on human-computer interaction in digital learning environments.