How do interactive tabletop systems influence collaboration?

This paper examines some aspects of the usefulness of interactive tabletop systems, if and how these impact collaboration. We chose creative problem solving such as brainstorming as an application framework to test several collaborative media: the use of pen-and-paper tools, the ‘‘around-the-table’’ form factor, the digital tabletop interface, the attractiveness of interaction styles. Eighty subjects in total (20 groups of four members) participated in the experiments. The evaluation criteria were task performance, collaboration patterns (especially equity of contributions), and users’ subjective experience. The ‘‘aroundthe-table’’ form factor, which is hypothesized to promote social comparison, increased performance and improved collaboration through an increase of equity. Moreover, the attractiveness of the tabletop device improved subjective experience and increased motivation to engage in the task. However, designing attractiveness seems a highly challenging issue, since overly attractive interfaces may distract users from the task

Understanding and supporting creativity in design

Belgium Herbarium image of Meise Botanic Garden

The role of personal and shared displays in scripted collaborative learning

Over the last decades collaborative learning has gained immensely in importance and popularity due to its high potential. Unfortunately, learners rarely engage in effective learning activities unless they are provided with instructional support. In order to maximize learning outcomes it is therefore advisable to structure collaborative learning sessions. One way of doing this is using collaboration scripts, which define a sequence of activities to be carried out by the learners. The field of computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) produced a variety of collaboration scripts that proved to have positive effects on learning outcomes. These scripts provide detailed descriptions of successful learning scenarios and are therefore used as foundation for this thesis. In many cases computers are used to support collaborative learning. Traditional personal computers are often chosen for this purpose. However, during the last decades new technologies have emerged, which seem to be better suited for co-located collaboration than personal computers. Large interactive displays, for example, allow a number of people to work simultaneously on the same surface while being highly aware of the co-learners' actions. There are also multi-display environments that provide several workspaces, some of which may be shared, others may be personal. However, there is a lack of knowledge regarding the influence of different display types on group processes. For instance, it remains unclear in which cases shareable user interfaces should replace traditional single-user devices and when both personal and shared workspaces should be provided. This dissertation therefore explores the role of personal and shared workspaces in various situations in the area of collaborative learning. The research questions include the choice of technological devices, the seating arrangement as well as how user interfaces can be designed to guide learners. To investigate these questions a two-fold approach was chosen. First, a framework was developed, which supports the implementation of scripted collaborative learning applications. Second, different prototypes were implemented to explore the research questions. Each prototype is based on at least one collaboration script. The result is a set of studies, which contribute to answering the above-mentioned research questions. With regard to the choice of display environment the studies showed several reasons for integrating personal devices such as laptops. Pure tabletop applications with around-the-table seating arrangements whose benefits for collaboration are widely discussed in the relevant literature revealed severe drawbacks for text-based learning activities. The combination of laptops and an interactive wall display, on the other hand, turned out to be a suitable display environment for collaborative learning in several cases. In addition, the thesis presents several ways of designing the user interface in a way that guides learners through collaboration scripts

Tools to Support Collaborative Creativity

It has been argued that in order to effectively support collaborate activities, such as creativity, we need to at least support individual and group activities. In this paper we review 3 creativity support tools (CSTs) that support various group compositions. Drawing lessons from the design of these existing CSTs we present the design of our own support tool – Public Social Private Design (PSPD). We finally report a brief evaluation of PSPD describing how it supports various group compositions and the transitions between them