S.A. Cerri et al. (Eds.): ITS 2012, LNCS 7315, pp. 647–648, 2012. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012 Scripting Discussions for Elaborative, Critical Interactions Oliver Scheuer 1 , Bruce M. McLaren 1,2 , Armin Weinberger 1 , and Sabine Niebuhr 3 1 Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany 2 Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, U.S.A. 3 Clausthal University of Technology, Clausthal, Germany o.scheuer@mx.uni-saarland.de Abstract. Scripting collaborative argumentation can be effective in helping students understand multiple perspectives in complex, ill-defined domains. We have developed a web-based collaborative learning environment and a collaboration script to support students in discussing and analyzing controversial texts. We present a study in which we varied one element of the script to support critical, elaborative interactions, namely whether or not students take a proponent and/or critic role. Our results suggest that roles have a positive effect on the extent of knowledge elaboration in student discussions. Keywords: computer-supported collaborative learning, collaboration scripts, argumentation, argument mapping. 1 Introduction It is widely recognized that critical thinking skills play an important role in today’s information societies. During the past two decades many computer-based tools have been developed to support the acquisition of argumentation skills [2]. We introduce a web-based collaborative learning environment that supports students in creating and discussing argument diagrams, and a collaboration script to support students in using this environment to discuss conflicting texts. We present a study that investigates whether an additional script component, in which students take “proponent” and “critic” roles, could improve the quality of student discussions in terms of critical, elaborative interactions. 2 Learning Environment and Collaboration Script LASAD is a highly configurable, web-based argument-diagramming environment that allows groups of students to represent arguments graphically in the form of box-and- arrow diagrams. Boxes represent statements and links represent argumentative and rhetorical relations of different types (e.g., “support”, “opposition”, “related to”). Besides a shared diagramming workspace students can use a chat to communicate with one another. The FACT-2 collaboration script (“Fostering Argumentation Through Conflicting Texts”) has been developed to support critical, elaborative discussion in student dyads