ABSTRACT
The use of new media offers manifold opportunities for new forms of cooperation. For example, it becomes possible to learn collaboratively or to jointly solve problems while being spatially distributed, It is characteristic of such settings that they require individual problem-solving skills beside good coordination and communication. Good communication can only be achieved if the participants establish enough common ground (e.g. Clark & Brennan, 1991). Therefore, participants have to take their possible knowledge differences into account and compensate misunderstandings (Clark, 1994; Horton & Keysar, 1996). The chance to establish common ground and to avoid problems in communication is partially determined by the characteristics of the communication setting. In computermediated settings problems are likely to occur because the challenges of computer-mediated communication add to the challenge of solving a task collaboratively. In my PhDproject I employ an experimental paradigm which enables to study processes underlying communication and cooperation in detail. Such analyses will be done in a first study. The results will then be used to design instructional measures to support the cooperation and facilitate the acquisition of relevant knowledge about communication and cooperation. The support measures will take into account the results of Rummel and Spada (submitted) concerning the impact of observational learning from a worked-out collaboration example and of learning from scripted collaborative problem-solving. In a second study these measures will be tested and evaluated.
