Knowledge convergence in computer-mediated learning environments. Effects of collaboration scripts

Armin Weinberger (1) , Frank Fischer (1) , Heinz Mandl (1)

1 Faculty of Education and Educational Psychology

One important aspect of collaborative learning environments is the convergence of participants of one learning group with respect to learning outcome. Studies show that learners rarely construct shared knowledge together. This experimental study analyzes two collaboration scripts that aim to facilitate knowledge convergence. A social script that prescribes different roles with specific, sequenced interactions and an epistemic script that prescribes different activities and their sequence with respect to the learning task. Both types of scripts were varied independently in a 2×2-factorial design. There were 96 university students of educational sciences who participated in groups of three. Results show that the epistemic script was highly effective in supporting process convergence. However, it was least beneficial in terms of outcome convergence.

Mots clés: collaboration scripts; computer mediated communication (CMC); knowledge convergence

Domaines: Environnements Informatiques pour l'Apprentissage Humain

Armin Weinberger, Frank Fischer, Heinz Mandl. Knowledge convergence in computer-mediated learning environments. Effects of collaboration scripts. Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA 2004), 2004, San Diego, United States. pp.7. ⟨hal-00197409⟩