Online Collaboration Implemented By Students: Distinct Contexts And Possible Added Values In Terms Of Collective Discoveries?

Abstract

Students have the opportunity to use different digital tools for collaboration purposes, particularly when they engage in research activities or investigations. But these tools can be part of distinct contexts, official or unofficial, depending on those used. Hence the interest in examining the interactive processes at work in both cases, just as the gradual transition from one to the other is likely to explain why the players distance themselves somewhat from the official bodies in order to work together. It is then hypothesized that such transition is capable of giving collective activity an heuristic dimension, notably a propensity for discovery. In this paper, it is put to the test in support of a theoretical field (Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning) and data (qualitative/quantitative) from recent studies, bearing in mind that another factor (the size of the groups formed by the students) seems to play a significant role in this matter.