Improving collaborative learning: Guiding knowledge exchange through the provision of information about learning partners and learning contents

Various studies have revealed the positive influence of group awareness support on collaborative learning. They attributed this effect to the availability of information about learning partners but did not yet consider learners' prior knowledge activation, possibly caused by additionally provided information about the content of learning material. Moreover, advanced technologies such as text-mining methods enable the automated identification of material-related content of learners' prior knowledge. Providing co-learners with such information might further improve their topic selection and knowledge integration during knowledge exchange due to enhanced activation. Thus, to investigate the individual effects of both types of information and the effects of combining both, the present experimental study (N = 120) systematically varies information about learning partners (available/unavailable) and information about learning contents (specified/unspecified) in a 2 x 2 between-design. We found tendencies that learners with available partner-related information address more task-specific concepts in explanations, but detected neither effects of specified information about learning contents nor interaction effects. Further 2 x 2 mixed-designs that included co-learners' prior knowledge levels as within-variables demonstrated that providing specified information about learning contents significantly improves questioning strategies and partner-related information significantly improves audience design in explanations. Finally, a mediation analysis suggested a significant indirect effect claiming that the knowledge integration level and partner modeling accuracy mediate the effect of available partner-related information on knowledge recall if this information is not content-specific. Hence, specified information about learning contents apparently guides metacognitive regulation with regard to identifying and filling own knowledge gaps. By contrast, plain partner-related information apparently evokes deeper cognitive elaboration.