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.