Abstract:

CSCL (Computer-Supported-Collaborative Learning) is a research focus on how collaboration and technology are able to promote community members share and distribute their knowledge and experience, facilitating peer interactions and teamwork, and ultimately improving the learning outcomes of participants (Lippponen, 2002). CSCL research dates back to the early nineties (Koschman, 1996) and their designs are based on different theories of learning: sociocultural theory of Vygotsky (1978), constructivist (Brunner, 1966) and dialogic (Bakhtin, 1986 and Hicks, 1996).

The analysis made on the processes of how higher education students collaborate in virtual environments consistently show that, while it is relatively easy for students to share ideas and compare information in such environments, is much more difficult to discuss in depth ideas and concepts, or negotiate their meaning, and much more complex to build new ideas collaboratively. Students engage easily in the most simple and initial construction of shared knowledge, but rarely moving towards more complex forms of development and joint understanding. At the same time, these studies indicate a broad and complex constellation of factors (cognitive, social and emotional) to develop complex processes (Onrubia, Naranjo and Segués, 2009).

Many studies have demonstrated the potential benefits of collaborative knowledge construction but less have researched the impact of collaboration on personal learning. This investigation aims to find out individual differences in learning and knowledge construction of professional students in a Master program when performing a written task collaboratively in an online environment with different supports. Students worked in three educational situations (with tutor, with written guides, without tutor). The initial results suggest no significance differences among groups whether they receive or not tutor support, which confirm that many variables affect individual learning and knowledge construction. Further research is being conducted to find out the impact of team dynamics, team organizational decisions and individual learning strategies on individual knowledge construction.

Keywords:

Computer-supported collaborative work, virtual learning, tutor support, virtual knowledge construction.