Learning Through Structural Activity in Collaborative Computer-Aided Design

The role of structural activities and other solution searching activities in design learning and problem solving have been identified in laboratory studies of problem solving and also in case studies of design teaching.. In laboratory studies, students have solved creative problems collaboratively under various communication conditions. The case studies follow students working on the same problem under two conditions - one group is taught using traditional face-to-face teaching while the other group is additionally supported by a textbased web board. This paper review findings from three experiments from which we can see that students producing above average solutions involved more structural activities than the mediocre cases. These successful cases engaged in textual expression of their design solutions. Computer tools for design should therefore support multiple representations of design work