Analysing the mechanisms of common ground in collaborative web-based interaction

Abstract : The ideas presented in this paper are challenged especially by the certain critical questions concerning web-based interaction and the qualitative analysis of such interaction and learning. The question arises whether the students from different contexts and countries are able to reach such interaction that would lead them to educationally relevant higher-level discussion and learning in web-based environments. Furthermore, as this field of study is fairly novel, there is a shortage of established methodologies for analysing computer-mediated communication and the complex phenomena it encompasses. In this presentation, we attempt to find new approaches to discover how people establish and maintain a common ground in interaction, particularly in situations where students are working collaboratively in a web-based environment. In order to construct the common ground, students share mutual understanding, knowledge, beliefs, assumptions and pre-suppositions. The common ground can be constructed and maintained during the interactive process called grounding. The study described in this paper is a part of the Finnish research project SHAPE (Sharing and Making Perspectives in Virtual Interaction).