To my complete surprise, I have received the Best Paper Award at the International Conference on Web-based Learning (ICWL) 2014 in Tallinn, Estonia, which I am currently attending!!

This morning, while I was eating breakfast at the hotel, a researcher from Hong Kong who had attended the session I chaired yesterday approached me and said, “You won the Best Paper Award, so please contact Professor Mart, the Local Committee Chair, to receive your certificate.”

The award ceremony took place during the coffee break after the workshop session. Thank you so much. The award-winning paper is:

Yamada, M., Goda, Y., Matsukawa, H., Hata, K. & Yasunami, S. (2014). What Psychological Factors Enhance a Language Learning Community? Toward Effective CSCL Design for Language Learning Based on a CoI Framework, E. Popescu et al. (Eds.): Proceedings of ICWL 2014, Lecture Notes in Computer Science 8613, 43-55. Springer International Publishing Switzerland

The acceptance rate for full papers was 23%. Since it is published in Springer’s Lecture Notes series, the acceptance rate is quite rigorous. The paper describes the results of a formative evaluation of the effectiveness of a system (“C4”) developed by applying the “Community of Inquiry” framework to the design of collaborative language learning environments. I would like to conduct further long-term evaluations outside of class in the future. I would like to thank Professor Goda (Kumamoto University), Professor Matsukawa (Osaka University), Professor Hata (Otemae University), Professor Yasunami (Kumamoto University), and everyone at Spice Works who cooperated in the development for their involvement in this project. I would also like to thank the reviewers of ICWL 2014.

Although the media and themes handled by this KAKENHI project will change slightly, I have secured funding for its continuation, so I hope to make it even better and produce even better research.