Computer-Supported Collaboration Scripts Perspectives from Educational Psychology and Computer Science

Students are often at a loss for what to do or have inadequate ideas of how to build knowledge collaboratively through computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL). Facilitating specific CSCL processes by providing learners with computer-supported collaboration scripts is regarded as a promising approach. Im- plemented in CSCL environments, computer-supported collaboration scripts spec- ify, sequence and distribute roles and activities. Scripts are intended to scaffold activities that students could not yet engage in on their own. One of the main chal- lenges of this approach for realising effective CSCL is the continuous adaptation of scripts to learners' needs and knowledge. Efforts to specify and formalise script AQ1 components and mechanisms have led to an integrative framework for computer scientists, educational scientists and psychologists of what constitutes computer- supported collaboration scripts as well as a growing library of prototypical CSCL scripts.