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Collaboration is widely regarded as beneficial for learning. Collaboration is the mutual engagement of participants in a coordinated effort to solve a problem together. It has been conclusively argued that a focus on the process of collaboration is necessary in order to understand the value of working together with peers for learning. In accordance with the approach of open distributed learning environments (ODLEs), we have developed a framework system for computer-supported cooperative learning and working. This distributed shared workspace system is well suited for monitoring and assessing group interaction in co-located and distant scenarios. It provides adaptable mechanisms for the automated micro-analysis of processes of collaboration as well as for visualization and feedback. The system has been used in determining conflicts in focus setting as well as initiative shifts in aggregation and revision phases during a sample of collaborative sessions on puzzle problem solving.

In this paper we discuss how group processes can be influenced by designing specific tools in computer supported collaborative leaning. We present the design of a shared workspace application for co-constructive tasks that is enriched by certain functions that are able to track, analyze and feed back parameters of collaboration to group members. Thereby our interdisciplinary approach is mainly based on an integrative methodology for analyzing collaboration behavior and patterns in an implicit manner combined with explicit surveyed data of group members' attitudes and its immediate feedback to the groups. In an exploratory study we examined the influence of this feedback function. Although we could only analyze ad-hoc groups in this study, we detected some benefits of our methodology which might enrich real life Learning Communities' collaboration processes. The data analysis in our study showed advantages of this feedback on processes of a group's well-being as well as parameters of participation. These results provide a basis for further empirical work on problem solving groups that are supported by means of parallel interaction analysis as well as its re-use as information resource.

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