Towards a Framework to Link Them All: A Provocation in the Ongoing Debate on Collaborative Learning

Overview & Synopsis

Common ground is a well-studied concept in the CSCL (Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning) community. Interestingly, while well-studied, its discovery did not seem to lead to common conceptual ground within the CSCL community. Since its beginnings 30 years ago, the community has produced a variety of frameworks, studies and theories around the concept of collaboration, collaborative learning and, in particular, collaborative learning tools. Missing common ground is a problem for analyzing collaboration itself and comparability across studies, which researchers such as Rummel, Wise and Schwarz highlight in a recent exchange on the subject. In this paper, we analyze existing frameworks and whether contradictions between different frameworks exist. We further propose an attempt to a joint definition and framework as a starting point and provocation for discussion in the community.