How does it work?

Solve a problem collaboratively

This application allows solving a problem between many people. All of them contribute with their particular solution and can see those of others, so that their ideas and those of the rest can generate better solutions than those achieved by a single individual. For the collaboration to be effective and carried out between many people, the process of work, copy and evolution have some rules that must be known for a better use of the application. With the collaboration of everyone, we can achieve that the intelligence of the group is greater than that of isolated individuals, generating what we call Collective Learning.

KampalCL: Application Description

To work at KampalCL you must register, and if you already are, give your username and password. Once logged in, you will see several projects in which you can participate. After clicking to participate in one of them, you can start collaborating right then. The process is divided into several Phases. You can join at any time, so that some Phases may have already passed when you start.

The interface is exemplified in the image below. The upper boxes are your answers or proposals to the different questions, whose statement is shown in the upper part of the boxes. Below your answers, there are other boxes corresponding to the answers of other people who are working on the project, and are close to you (neighbors).

The first action you can do is write in your boxes (edit). The second is dragging from a solution of your neighbors to one of the answers in your box, and make it yours (copy).

Edit and Copy are the two basic actions. You must Edit to contribute your ideas to the best solution. You must Copy when you see that there is another proposal that is good or better than yours. By copying it, you make it more visible to everyone, so that more people can copy it, and perhaps become one of the final solutions.

Try to write correct and well-argued solutions for your classmates to copy and so the answers can survive. Keep in mind that it is not about you getting a good grade, it is about everyone getting a good grade. In the end, there is only one solution, and for it to be the best, it is convenient that we copy the ones that seem like it.

At the top, there is a bar that says "Popularity" corresponding to the times your answers appear in the other participants. If you copy answers from others, you increase your popularity, because you happen to have an answer that others already have (at least 1). Increasing popularity means being closer to the most shared solution. It is achieved by copying the most used ones, or when they copy you (this in general is more difficult, of course ...).

On this basis, the system organizes the work in Phases, with different properties for each one. At the bottom on the left, you can see which phase you are in and how much time is left to change to the next one.

• Phase 0: Now only the statement and the questions are shown. You still cannot write. It is time to calmly read the statement and to understand the problem well before starting to work.
• Phase 1: You can now write your answers in the boxes. Do not forget to click on the “Save” button so that what you write is conveniently saved.
• Phase 2: Now you can see, under your solutions, the solutions of 4 of the people who are working on the same project (Sometimes you will see less, it is normal…). Now you can drag one of their solutions to yours, that is, you can copy them if they seem better than yours. Each time you copy, you make that solution and yours more popular, and you facilitate its survival in the system. Feel free to copy what seems correct to you. You will see the solutions written by your neighbours when the phase begins, but you will not see what they change during this Phase.
• Phase 3: Now you can see what your neighbours write, and if they modify it, you will see it change instantly. You can keep writing your solutions and copying. However, now the possibility appears that your position changes so you will see other different neighbours. This is to be more "open-minded".
• Phase 4: Besides the above, now the system can automatically copy a response from one of your neighbors to yours ... this is to facilitate reaching a unique solution.
• Phase 5: Up to now, you have written and copied your solutions. You can keep doing it. Each of the answers could have been copied by anyone, and the most copied solutions are “healthier” than those that have not been. In this Phase, those with less “Health” can be deleted from your boxes. Given this erasure system, you should know that now those that you write new, if they do not become popular very quickly, they will disappear. On the contrary, if you see any of your neighbours that you particularly like, and you want a good solution to be finally obtained, you will have to copy it to facilitate their survival.
• Phase 6: Now you no longer see your neighbours, instead you see the 10 Best answers to each question. You can keep copying. You can still write new proposals, but now to do so you must drag one of your solutions towards the Top10 question on which you propose the improvement. These proposals are placed next to the Top10, and you can also copy them. Remember that new proposals are unlikely to survive.
• Phase 7: You can no longer write, you can only copy. There are no changes in position or Responses. Neither extinctions.

After this phase, the project ends, and you will be able to see the final result and also your latest solution.