An Empirical Study of Knowledge Creation and Interaction in Argumentation Setting

The paper defines Computer-Supported Collaborative Argumentation as a collaborative activity supported by CMC, which focuses on argumentation interactions. CSCA embeds the advantage to eliminate social context cues and provides a direct channel to express one’s opinions. In this case, Computer-Supported Collaborative Argumentation (CSCA) becomes a new paradigm supported by Computer-Mediated Communication. CMC facilitates a context for participants within argumentation interactions that embed the advantages of computer conferencing. The goal of our research is to analyse the relationship between knowledge creation and quality of interaction and quality of discussion within an argumentation process. We report data of an experiment in which 120 MIS 2nd years students use four communication media settings on knowledge creation. The results suggest that an argumentation-based approach provides an environment not only for creating but also for motivating a community-wide view of information sharing because it enables discussion, mutual engagement and autonomy of knowledge exchanging. Also, in contradiction to media richness theory, this study indicates that structured argumentation-based software results in a better quality of argumentation interaction within the team, and more favourable attitude and participation in interaction, and thus yields the highest level of knowledge creation among four different communication configurations (including face-to-face)