The role of personal and shared displays in scripted collaborative learning

Over the last decades collaborative learning has gained immensely
in importance and popularity due to its high potential.
Unfortunately, learners rarely engage in effective learning
activities unless they are provided with instructional support. In
order to maximize learning outcomes it is therefore advisable to
structure collaborative learning sessions. One way of doing this is
using collaboration scripts, which define a sequence of activities
to be carried out by the learners. The field of computer-supported
collaborative learning (CSCL) produced a variety of collaboration
scripts that proved to have positive effects on learning outcomes.
These scripts provide detailed descriptions of successful learning
scenarios and are therefore used as foundation for this thesis. In
many cases computers are used to support collaborative learning.
Traditional personal computers are often chosen for this purpose.
However, during the last decades new technologies have emerged,
which seem to be better suited for co-located collaboration than
personal computers. Large interactive displays, for example, allow
a number of people to work simultaneously on the same surface while
being highly aware of the co-learners' actions. There are also
multi-display environments that provide several workspaces, some of
which may be shared, others may be personal. However, there is a
lack of knowledge regarding the influence of different display
types on group processes. For instance, it remains unclear in which
cases shareable user interfaces should replace traditional
single-user devices and when both personal and shared workspaces
should be provided. This dissertation therefore explores the role
of personal and shared workspaces in various situations in the area
of collaborative learning. The research questions include the
choice of technological devices, the seating arrangement as well as
how user interfaces can be designed to guide learners. To
investigate these questions a two-fold approach was chosen. First,
a framework was developed, which supports the implementation of
scripted collaborative learning applications. Second, different
prototypes were implemented to explore the research questions. Each
prototype is based on at least one collaboration script. The result
is a set of studies, which contribute to answering the
above-mentioned research questions. With regard to the choice of
display environment the studies showed several reasons for
integrating personal devices such as laptops. Pure tabletop
applications with around-the-table seating arrangements whose
benefits for collaboration are widely discussed in the relevant
literature revealed severe drawbacks for text-based learning
activities. The combination of laptops and an interactive wall
display, on the other hand, turned out to be a suitable display
environment for collaborative learning in several cases. In
addition, the thesis presents several ways of designing the user
interface in a way that guides learners through collaboration
scripts.