Discovery, Dissemination and Integration of Knowledge in a CSCL System

Along with the increase of the educational materials deployed on the Web, an increase in the needs and expectations also exists towards the adoption of Web-based learning systems. In this respect, CSCL provides the technological infrastructure to conduct effective learning methodologies, since it allows the definition of new scenarios of learning as a social endeavor along with the means for their evaluation. In this paper, it is proposed the design of a methodology for the constructivist approach of collaborative learning based on the scientific method and the implementation of a Web-based framework for a course of logic circuits that support this model. The main contributions consist in (i) using the scientific method as a fundamental model for the acquisition of new knowledge derived from using software artifacts discovered and contributed by a community of students, and (ii) developing a computer-based framework that instruments this model in a new generation of CSCL frameworks