SCAN tools for collaborative learning

SCAN tools (Social and Cognitive Awareness and Navigation tools) inform participants about social and/or cognitive variables with respect to a group and its members. This paper describes how SCAN tools facilitate and "institutionalize" the natural processes of becoming aware about social and cognitive variables, thereby leading to adaptive behavior in collaboration. The notion of person-object relations (PORs) is introduced as the basic building block underlying both group awareness and social navigation. Four design principles of SCAN tools (response formatting, juxtaposition, aggregation/transformation, and prediction/recommendation) are discussed, and their application in CSCL scenarios is described. Finally, issues for both practical implications and use-inspired basic research on SCAN mechanisms will be explored.