Facilitating cooperative learning in hypermedia systems

Distributed organizations as well as virtual universities need support for cooperative learning processes. This led to the new major research area computer-supported cooperative (or collaborative) learning. We propose an approach to hypermedia-based collaborative learning environments which supports a wide range of synchronous and asynchronous types of cooperative learning as well as smooth transitions between these learning modes. A framework for building such environments consisting of virtual learning rooms, learning nets, and learning protocol is presented. These concepts are implemented in the CROCODILE prototype developed at GMDIPSI.