Collaborative Scenarios to Promote Positive Interdependence among Group Members

Positive interdependence is the heart of collaborative activities that define collaboration and transform group work into teamwork. To achieve positive interdependence among students, just putting them in group and telling them to work together may not be sufficient. Previously, several types of positive interdependencies have been identified for unsupported group activities. These kinds of interdependencies are now instantiated for the case of computer-supported group learning. The examples we show in this paper are taken from computer games and other tools we have developed to set students in a scenario in which they must collaborate in order to succeed. This paper also presents diverse forms of structuring positive interdependence in software tools based on the interface design to ensure that students think we instead of me.