Design features of the task
There are several points in the design of the task that require careful consideration because they contribute to the success of the activity. These are summarised in Table 1. The near synchronous nature of the activity facilitates both task specific and informal interaction and increases the productivity of the group. In a way it "bridges the gap imposed by asynchronicity" (Kirschner et al, 2004, p.59). This is also related to social affordance (one of the three affordances that is important for the design of CSCL environments: educational, social and technological) which is also possible to design into the environment by including tools such as group awareness widgets that explicitly embed social functionality.
The design of the task in this activity requires students to start the discussion with a contribution presenting their position with regards to initial questions. This prompts students to comment on each other's contributions and this in turn encourages them to engage in social interaction.
Students shape the discussion themselves, although the main area of the task is decided by the teacher, the task itself is flexible and uses real life news items from media. By letting students decide what to discuss the activity makes students realise that it is their responsibility to come up with ideas (task ownership) and they decide what to discuss and how to go about it (task control). The questions posed at the beginning of the activity help students tackle the whole task in smaller segments, therefore "stimulate the learners to describe, explain, predict, argue, critique, explicate and define" (Kirschner et al, 2004 , p. 55).
Table 1. Design features of the task (adapted from Kirschner et al, 2004).