Abstracts - Earli

perspectives – the scripting of roles for instructional support and the analysis of spontaneous rolesduring collaborative learning. The symposium contributions will address the feasibility of theseapplications and explore how these seemingly diverse perspectives can be integrated.Prototypical roles in group work: A conceptual framework for the design of a tool for teachersJan-Willem Strijbos, Leiden University, NetherlandsMaarten de Laat, University of Exeter, United KingdomDuring the past five years, the ‘role’ concept has become a promising construct for facilitating andanalysing Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL). In CSCL research there areroughly two perspectives regarding roles: scripted roles that aimto facilitate collaborative learningprocesses and emergent roles developed spontaneously by the participants in support of theircollaborative learning activities. Scripted roles can be assigned to learners to structure thecollaborative process; this is also referred to as ‘scripting’ (O’Donnell & Dansereau, 1992), andare content-oriented or process-oriented. A content-oriented role, e.g. summarizer, appears tostimulate knowledge acquisition (Schellens, Van Keer, & Valcke, 2005), whereas a processorientedrole specifies members’ individual responsibilities to stimulate coordination (Strijbos,Martens, Jochems, & Broers, 2007). Roles can also emerge spontaneously without any scriptingbeing provided (De Laat, 2006). The concept of roles can then be applied to analyze students’individual contributions and interaction patterns during collaborative learning (Pilkington &Walker, 2003). The recent methodological development and discussion signifies that we asresearchers struggle to find satisfactory ways to make sense of these complex interactions.However this is not an end in itself. Our efforts should not only serve our analytical and theoreticalneeds, but should also be transformed into ‘tools for teachers’ to provide them with the adequatesupport needed to implement CSCL in the classroom. In this contribution a conceptual frameworkconsisting of prototypical roles, defined along three dimensions, is presented to describe studentactivity in both small groups (where roles are frequently scripted) and large groups (where rolesare frequently spontaneous). The goal is to provide a framework that a) facilitates a meaningfuldescription of student behaviour, and b) can be handled with relative ease by teachers to evaluategroup work.Role scripts for improving group learning beyond individual learning: Does it work?Armin Weinberger, Ludwig Maximillians University, GermanyKarsten Stegmann, Ludwig Maximillians University, GermanyFrank Fischer, Ludwig Maximillians University, GermanyStudies show that computer-supported collaborative learners frequently suffer from process lossesand seem to have difficulties to distribute roles effectively. Hence, individual learning mayoutperform collaborative learning if learners are not supported to take over complementary roles.Computer-supported scripts seem to be able to facilitate specific processes and outcomes ofcomputer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL), such as domain-specific knowledge anddomain-general, e.g., argumentative knowledge. In this study with a 2×2-factorial design (n = 72)we investigate the effects of a script (with vs. without) and the social form of learning (individualvs. collaborative) on learning processes and outcomes in the context of an online learningenvironment in higher education. Results show that the script facilitated the construction ofarguments within the computer-supported learning environment as well as knowledge acquisition.The results indicate that collaborative learning may outperform individual learning regardinglearning outcomes when it is structured by a script.– 616 –