Several researchers in the area of cooperative work take as a success criterion the quality of the group outcome. Nevertheless, recent findings are giving more importance to the quality of "cooperation process" itself. This paper presents the design of a software tool that allow us to capture information concerned with the group work. Besides to reveal the final quality of the group outcome, this information permit us to verify the presence of a cooperation indicators, which in turn allow us to determine the quality of the work process. A conducted experiment is described, and the obtained data is discussed, comparing the quality of the collaboration process with the quality of the results obtained by the groups.
Luis A. Guerrero, Rosa Alarcón, Césa