Designing and Analyzing Social Dynamics for Collaborative

Abstract

The negotiation-oriented and partly web-based game “Surfing Global Change” (SGC) produces characteristic collaborative behavior in student groups. Its social dynamics were statistically analyzed with sets of university students in Austria. The architecture of SGC was already explained in other articles and gives a framework for “game based learning” along five interactive game levels: 1) learn content and pass quizzes; 2) write and reflect a personal standpoint; 3) win with a team in a competitive discussion; 4) negotiate a complex consensus between teams; 5) integrate views when recognizing and analyzing long-term global trends. This paper provides correlation analyses of parameters that describe student activities in a web-based space of interaction that intends to introduce collaborative behavior. The conclusion of the statistical analyses suggests that the set of SGC game rules acts as a boundary condition for expected processes of social self-organization. Interest in a good grade (= function of collected rewards) in this sense steers team size, work attitude and individual affinity for sticking to personal convictions. Rules trigger two distinct processes: social dynamics in the class and the striving for grades for the course; these targets do not necessarily match.