Facilitating Collaboration: Potential Synergies Between Collaboration Engineering and Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning

This article explores the potential synergy between computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) and collaboration engineering (CE). Both areas pursue the goal of understanding how to manage interactions in collaborative groups to achieve shared understanding, reduce process losses, and improve performance. By analyzing the research in the two areas, the authors identify several topics where exchange of research findings would be of mutual benefit. For example, research on CE can inform collaboration script research on reducing learners' cognitive load, providing sufficient guidance on the use of tools, and specifying the instructor role during the collaborative learning process. Similarly, collaboration script research can provide useful insights to CE on the appropriation and internalization of effective support strategies. CE research could also learn from script research on training group participants into specific roles. Further challenges include designing scripts that balance restrictiveness and flexibility and refining the theoretical foundation of the two research areas.