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Computer-supported collaboration by spatially distributed group members still involves interaction problems within the group. This article presents an empirical study investigating the question of whether computer-supported collaborative problem solving by spatially distributed group members can be fostered by evoking knowledge and information awareness, i.e., awareness of a group member with regard to both their fellow collaborators’ domain knowledge and information underlying this knowledge. The study (N = 30 triads) confirmed the efficiency of this approach by comparing (a) an experimental condition in which an environment for fostering knowledge and information awareness was provided and (b) a control condition without such an environment, with regard to communication and cooperation aspects, the quality of the group maps (needed for solving the problems), and the problem-solving performance.
Engelmann et al. (Wed,) studied this question.