Fostering collaborative knowledge construction in desktop videoconferencing. Effects of content schemes and cooperation scripts in peer teaching settings

Video-conferencing is expected to become increasingly important for
tele-learning environments. In contrast to asynchronous, text-based
computer-mediated communication, video-conferencing facilitates
cooperation tasks that require highly frequent and continuous
coordination. Typical kinds of such cooperation tasks are found in
peer teaching settings. Despite the growing application of
video-conferencing, only little is known about possibilities of
enhancing collaboration in video-conferencing settings. This study
investigates the effects of different types of support for
cooperation on the learning outcomes of peer dyads in a
video-conferencing scenario. The main research question is how
cooperation scripts and content schemes enhance the students'
cognitive activities and foster the outcomes of cooperative
learning. Two factors were varied experimentally: The content
scheme (with/without) and the cooperation script (with/without). 86
university students of educational psychology participated in the
study. Each student of a dyad received a text dealing with a
psychological theory in the field of the nature-nurture-debate. The
students' tasks were (1) to teach their partners the relevant
contents of their text and (2) to reflect ideas that went beyond
the scope of the text. Results indicate that in particular the
cooperation script en-hances learning outcomes of collaborative
knowledge construction