Supporting collaborative learning in engineering design

In team-based project courses, collaborative learning is the dominant learning mode. Collaborative learning has been shown to increase individual learning through co-construction and personal reflection. Rapid adoption of web-based communication and mobile computing by students provide opportunities to take advantage of computer-supported collaboration for engineering education. We present preliminary findings on a computer environment, the Kiva Web, that supports the activities of group collaboration for interdisciplinary engineering design teams. We have employed methods from human-computer interaction (HCI) to iterate on the design in the context of use. In this paper, we discuss the evolution of the Kiva Web and the implications for both student design teams and professional design teams. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.