Group Awareness and Group Awareness Tools in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning: A Literature Review

Since group awareness was introduced into the field of CSCL, it has become an important concept to trigger high-quality collaborative learning. This study reviewed the literature on the visualizations and effects of group awareness in CSCL. After the searching and screening process, 23 empirical studies were selected from 3 databases. Findings revealed that learners cannot easily capture the group awareness information because of its hiding. Therefore, more and more group awareness tools (GATs) have been developed as an important way for learners to perceive the process of collaboration in CSCL. This study analyzed what information is presented by different types of GATs (cognitive, behavioral, and social) and how to visualize this information. In addition, this study also focused on exploring the effects of GATs on students' collaborative learning from three aspects: collaboration process, group performance and individual performance. Finally, based on the results of literature analysis, potential future research directions were proposed.