Measuring Process and Outcome of the Scientific Argumentation in a CSCL Environment

Abstract

This paper describes the conceptualization and operationalization of the scientific argumentation in a CSCL environment. An online platform is designed to support students’ collaborative argumentation with diagram-based representations of argumentation based on Toulmin’s (1958) Argumentation framework. Based on existing analytic frameworks of collaborative argumentation while accommodating the specific demands and characteristics of the target users and the environment involved, a conceptual framework and a group of indicators are derived for operationalizing the measurement constructs of the process and outcome of students’ collaborative argumentation.