Designing and investigating pedagogical scripts to facilitate computer-supported collaborative learning

Abstract

Computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) appears to provide a promising social approach to foster learning. On the other hand, recent studies have indicated that when learners are left on their own, it is often difficult for teams to engage in productive interactions. Therefore, the use of collaboration scripts as instructional support has been presented as a possibility to trigger productive collaborative activities.

This study provides knowledge of collaboration scripts as a pedagogical method to facilitate group processes in virtual environments in authentic educational contexts. The findings indicate that scripts as external support can help students proceed in solving learning tasks. This study involved a number of different scripts and groups. However, none of the scripts could guarantee equal and high-level collaboration within the teams, and there was also considerable variation between the groups in this respect. Based on the findings of this study, in the future, scripts should support group flexibility and collaboration, depending on the learning goals, learnerss' characteristics and roles assumed in a group.