Small group processes on computer supported collaborative learning

Today, information and communication technologies (ICTs) are often applied to assist learning processes. Peculiar objectives of ICT use in this topic are to facilitate collaboration and to increase learning through sharing and distributing knowledge. This study aimed to investigate the effects that a small group has on the individual and collaborative learning. A virtual environment was used to study the dynamics of social behaviors in collaborative and non-collaborative experimental conditions. Our results seem to support the hypothesis that social scripts are started, even when people are in non-interactive situations, and this is shown in virtual environments, too. Such outcomes, and the virtual interactions content analysis may suggest useful advices about collective reasoning and e-learning dynamics, which are very relevant topics in the study of web communities and educational communities.