Criteria for Collaborators Search

The purpose of this paper is to extract the criteria using for looking for collaborators and examine their relevance. These search criteria are used by a search engine that is part of a distance computer supported collaborative learning. The goal of the developed engine is to facilitate the collaborators search for a learner who asks for collaboration. The learner must specify his preferences and his needs so that the system can take them into account. The needs are related to the behavioural (social) and cognitive levels of learners and their current states of knowledge (the learning unit being acquired). The learner´s preferences concern his judgment on the tasks of previous collaboration activities and his opinion about the behavioural state of the other learner (requested for collaboration) (he often accepts requests for collaboration; he rarely accepts collaboration, etc.). We tested this system at Guelma University for three months. We have recorded good results, which are discussed and analysed in the end of this paper. Furthermore, we give the results of a questionnaire that was submitted to learners (containing 31 questions) and we present some interfaces of the system with the problems encountered during this experiment.