Learning to collaborate: Designing collaboration in a 3-D game environment

To respond to learning needs, Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) must provide instructional support. The particular focus of this paper is on designing collaboration in a 3-D virtual game environment intended to make learning more effective by promoting student opportunities for interaction. The empirical experiment eScape, which encourages learners to solve problems collaboratively, is also presented. eScape is a design experiment, comprising both the process of designing a collaborative game environment and an empirical study where data is collected using a variety of methods and analysed, after which the findings and conclusions serve as a basis for further design work. By designing and testing game-players' activities, this study attempted to find out whether the characteristic features of 3-D games can be used to create meaningful virtual collaborative learning environments. The results revealed that the scripted game persuaded student teams to enter into collaboration, but the actual processes varied. © 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.