A Shared Rationale Space for Supporting Knowledge Awareness in Collaborative Learning Activities: An Empirical Study

Knowledge awareness refers to one´s awareness of the other group learners´ domain knowledge. CSCL researchers maintain that knowledge awareness is an important aspect to the outcome of collaborative learning activities. Interested in groupware design to support knowledge awareness, I investigated how a shared rationale space affected one´s knowledge awareness in virtual collaborative learning environment through a classroom study. In the investigation, a rationale is a learner´s reasoning behind his/her decision of the tasks in the learning activity. The findings show that one´s awareness of the other group learners´ rationales, namely, rationale awareness, enhances one´s knowledge awareness. The study suggests several design implications to support knowledge awareness, including sharing one´s contextual information that reveals one´s domain knowledge, highlighting the association between the knowledge awareness information and the learners who provided the information, and supporting utilization of knowledge awareness information at both individual and group levels.