The Design of Asynchronous Communication Support

Context-Oriented Communication Theory. In computer science, models of communication are generally characterized by the sender-recipient model by Shannon and Weaver. In this model, the transmission of a sender’s message to a recipient by a channel is assumed, where the message is encoded before and decoded after the transmission. However, even if human communication acts are transmitted by a CSCL system, they are more than only the technical transport of a coded message from A to B and a following decoding.

Psychologically oriented research shows that both communication partners have to contribute if the mutual understanding and construction of ideas is to succeed in dialogues. Communication is a process that is influenced by several selections. A communicator selects from the universe of his/her beliefs what he/she wants to say, and the recipient selects, with respect to his/her universe of beliefs, what he/she wants to understand. In the course of social interaction, these selection processes cannot be determined in advance but can only be influenced by the communication.

Another basic characteristic of communication is the relevance of context. Communication can only succeed, if the communicator’s expressions are completed by the context that can be perceived by the communicator and the recipients. Context is understood as the physical and social setting in which the communication takes place.

The context of the communicators is represented by what they perceive during communication and by what they have perceived before the moment of the communication act. Since context can refer to the past, an expression of the moment can become part of another expression’s context in the future. The starting point or the boundaries of the context of a communication act cannot be defined deterministically. It belongs to the task of the communicators to encircle the scope of context that can support their communication.

By referring to the available context, two essential advantages are achieved. On the one hand, the explicitness of the conveyed content does not need to be maximal, because only these pieces of information have to be given that are required to complete the context in such a way that the message can be reconstructed and understood by the recipient. For example ‘‘Where is the car?’’ can be answered with ‘‘behind the red house’’ if there is only one red house that is part of the perceptible context.

The communicator has to anticipate the scope of context that is available for the addressee. This anticipation can be supported by knowledge about the communication partner. Eventually, the need for explicit communication can be reduced (‘‘where is the car?’’—‘‘same place as yesterday’’). On the other hand, the available context assists in finding out whether the communication partners understand each other.

Depending on how a situation evolves, there are either indicators for the success of a communication task or an identifiable necessity to recheck the comprehension of the message or simply to improve the communication (‘‘let’s get up immediately’’ — ‘‘why are you not getting up right now’’ — don’t you understand me?’’).

To emphasize the role of the context, this theory is called context-oriented communication support. It can and should be used for the design of CSCL systems, especially its communication support.