What is coordination theory and how can it help design cooperative work systems?
CSCW '90 Proceedings of the 1990 ACM conference on Computer-supported cooperative work
The role of critiquing in cooperative problem solving
ACM Transactions on Information Systems (TOIS) - Special issue on computer—human interaction
Awareness and coordination in shared workspaces
CSCW '92 Proceedings of the 1992 ACM conference on Computer-supported cooperative work
Groupware for developing critical discussion skills
CSCL '95 The first international conference on Computer support for collaborative learning
Coordination mechanisms: towards a conceptual foundation of CSCW systems design
Computer Supported Cooperative Work - Special issue on the design of cooperative systems
Design and evaluation of a collaborative telelearning activity aimed at teacher training
CSCL '99 Proceedings of the 1999 conference on Computer support for collaborative learning
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We have analyzed data from a field study in collaborative telelearning (Wasson, 1999). The goal of the study was to investigate how the students used a set of groupware tools to coordinate learning activities. We have used concepts from collaborative telelearning and coordination mechanisms (Schmidt & Simone, 1996) as analytic framework. Our findings indicate that students coordinate many activities by implicit, locally adopted resources instead of fully developed mechanisms. Three implicit resources were identified and named (no initial discussion, asymmetry of knowledge, and different expectations). These resources were not associated with any specific groupware features, but referred to the students' background knowledge and subjective interpretation. We end the paper by suggesting how implicit resources in distributed learning environments can play a role similar to how non-verbal cues -- such as gesture and facial expression -- play a role in face-to-face interaction, but without imitating human body language.