8. Discussion
8.1. Social Support by Collaboration Script
First of all, the effects of the computer-supported collaboration script on collaborative learning outcomes and on individual learning outcomes related to design and building websites will be discussed.
8.1.1. Effects of collaboration script on collaborative learning outcome
Although the last (unstructured) chat session was conducting with the same goal, namely improving and republishing the websites, over the different conditions, students spent less time in conducting their discussions with the collaboration script compared to the students in the ICMO and the CSICM conditions. However, the results in particular showed that the collaboration script approach (Kollar et al., 2006) could partially improve the collaborative learning outcomes in the online DBL environment. Although the collaboration script did not show positive effects on content-related discourse quality, it had substantial effects on all three dimensions collaboration skills and a medium-sized positive effect on the quality of published websites.The results concerning content-related discourse quality indicate that although the students in the CSO condition were supported with the collaboration script for longer time for supporting their online discussions during the treatment, the level of focusing on the content and the web design concepts during the unstructured chat session was not of adequate depth and span to improve the quality of content-related discourse processes. Probably, the collaboration script that was provided to the students in the CSO condition was not adequate to engage them in high level of content-related discourse processes through the unstructured chat session. Therefore, in the light of the “zone of proximal development” (ZPD) (Chang et al., 2002; Vygotsky, 1978), engaging the students in high levels of content-related discourse processes during the unstructured chat session may be too difficult (might be beyond their ZPD), which in turn may have hindered the students to discuss the content deeply and focus more on the web design concepts that would engage them in higher quality content-related discourse. This confirms Admiraal et al.’s (1998) findings that showed engaging students in
online discussions without adequate content scaffolding may engage the students in superficial discussions about the content.
Regarding the results related to the collaboration skills, it is interesting to see that the collaboration script seemed to be internalized by the students to a relatively large extent, given that the effects on the discussions after the treatment were that strongly coined by the script instruction. Such effects may have probably been even stronger as long as the script was still present, but actually this study can not confirm that in absence of real process data. Therefore, it might be speculated that the positive effect of the collaboration script on collaboration skills may indicate that the prompt-based collaboration script seemed to engage the students in higher level inquiry-based discussions, which in turn seemed to help students lead more sophisticated discussions. This relates to findings from prior research that demonstrated that collaboration scripts can improve students’ online discussions (e.g., Kollar et al, 2007; Schoonenboom, 2008). In addition, using the collaboration script that was based on ideas from the guided peer questioning approach seemed to engage the students in elaborative strategies of questioning, answering, and explaining, which may facilitate and guide the students to ask more questions, give more answers, and give more responds to answers in the form of higher level discussions. Similar findings were noted in prior research, such as King (1999) and O’Donnell and Dansereau (1992).
With regard to the quality of published websites, the results showed that the collaboration script enabled the students to improve the quality of published websites. This positive effect may be associated with effective communication and task coordination due to collaboration script , which may have also promoted high level online discussions., High level discussions may have probably help them to discuss and understand the constructive standards for designing websites in order to improve the quality of published websites. Another possible explanation for improving the quality of published websites can derive from the CSO case study. The collaboration script may have supported the students to critically evaluate their learning partners’ contributions and to anticipate critical review on their own contributions. This may have fostered a more critical discourse between the dyads about their published websites and the constructive standards for designing websites. Finally, this may have helped the students to effectively improve their websites before getting at the stage of the final publishing.
8.1.2. Effects of collaboration script on individual learning outcomes
The collaboration script was designed intending to improve individual learning outcomes by using prompt-based collaboration scripts as tools for improving the quality of content-related discussions (King, 1999), as well as to structure the interactions between learning partners (Kollar et al., 2007; Weinberger et al., 2007) and facilitate communicative and coordinative processes between students (Hoppe et al., 2000), which may finally lead to the acquisition of domain-specific knowledge. However, this aim has proven difficult in earlier studies, but that it was reached in this study. In general, the computer-supportedcollaboration script that was used in this study had positive effects on individual knowledge outcomes both factual knowledge on web design and standards for designing websites as well as web design skills. A possible explanation for such results could be the extended timeframe of treatment. Perhaps, compared to early studies where the collaboration script was used for a shorter timeframe, the more extensive learning phase employed in this study may have promoted such positive effects. The students in the CSO condition worked with collaboration script through (12) chat sessions over (34) days before conducting the final unstructured chat session and the post-tests. In this way, the collaboration script may have been internalized and used as a tool toward substantial content-related discussions instead of long coordinative discussions about who does what, which in turn may facilitate the acquisition of both factual knowledge and skills needed for designing websites. Moreover, this might be explained by the different roles followed by the students in discussions. Such roles could be considered like roles of teacher and student that may have facilitated the construction of relations between the learned content and the achieved design problem. This relates to findings from prior studies that used role distribution as a way to structure CSCL (e.g., Strijbos, Martens, Jochems, & Boers, 2004).