%0 Journal Article
%T An environment for studying collaborative learning activities
%A Nikolaos Avouris
%A Vassilis Komis
%A Meletis Margaritis
%A Georgios Fiotakis
%J Educational Technology & Society
%D 2004
%I International Forum of Educational Technology & Society
%X Studies of collaborative learning activities often involve analyses of dialogue and interaction as well as analyses of tasks and actors  roles through ethnographic and other field experiments. Adequate analysis tools can facilitate these studies. In this paper, we discuss key requirements of interaction and collaboration analysis tools. We indicate how these requirements lead to the design of new analysis environments. These environments support annotation and analysis of various kinds of collected data in order to study collaborative learning activities. An important characteristic of these tools is their support for a structure of annotations of various levels of abstraction, through which an activity can be interpreted and presented. This can serve as a tool for reflection and interpretation as well as for facilitation of research in collaborative learning.
%K Collaborative problem solving
%K analysis of collaboration
%K ethnographic studies
%U http://www.ifets.info/abstract.php?art_id=54