Analyzing User Activity and Group Interaction in Shared Workspaces

In recent years, shared workspace systems have been an active area of research and development in computer-supported collaborative learning. A particular type of shared workspace systems provides graph-oriented visual representations for synchronous interaction, which are well suited for co-constructive activities. This type of systems is used in face-to-face settings as well as in distant settings with additional communication means such as chat tools or video conferencing systems. Simply speaking, a shared workspace is an electronic version of a sheet of paper or a blackboard that is jointly used by a group of people for writing and drawing. However, shared workspaces have a number of additional features in comparison to paper and pencil representations. On the one hand, there are general features such as computer-based storing and retrieving of shared workspaces. On the other hand, shared workspaces can provide some sort of component-based structure, which is visualized graphically and can be modified flexibly by direct manipulation. A learning situation is promoted by the provision of problem-related workspace material that has a potential for stimulating discussions and for supporting the objectification of inherent problem structures. This means that in collaborative learning, the activity is joint problem solving, and learning is expected to occur as a side effect (Roschelle & Teasley, 1995). One of the first shared-workspace systems that has been developed for collaborative learning is the system C-Chene, which provides a graphical structure for the joint modeling of energy chains (Baker & Lund, 1996). The shared workspace provides components that represent domain concepts such as sources and drains of energy as well as links between components that are to represent the flow of energy. This system is designed for a specific problem, which is reflected by the closed sets of links and symbolic representations for domain objects. It can be regarded as a specific realization of a concept-mapping tool (Novak, 1990; Cicognani, 2000) for the domain of energy chains. Another well-known shared-workspace system for collaborative learning is the system Belvedere (Suthers, Weiner, Connelly, & Paolucci, 1995). Belvedere provides labeled components for textual statements and links to represent argumentative relations. In contrast to CChene, in Belvedere the shared workspace is not used to jointly model domain relations but to collaborate in a scientific inquiry process. Both C-Chene and Belvedere provide component-based structures for specific problems. They can be regarded as specific instances of distributed graphical environments that provide generic visual languages for collaboration (Lakin, 1990; Stefik, Foster, Bobrow, Kahn, Lanning, & Suchman, 1987).