The affordance of anchored discussion 5 for the collaborative processing 6 of academic texts 7

12 Abstract A system for Banchored discussion^ is compared with a system for 13 traditional forum discussion (Blackboard), and their collaborative and communica14 tive affordances for the collaborative processing of academic texts are investigated. 15 Results show that discussion in the system for anchored discussion is more directed 16 at processing the meaning of texts than discussion in the traditional forum, which is 17 more oriented towards the sharing of personal opinions and experiences. This 18 difference in orientation produces a more constructive collaboration in the system 19 for anchored discussion, versus a more debate-like collaboration in the forum dis20 cussion. Additionally, while messages in the traditional forum resemble usual dis21 cussion or email conversation and contain social and regulative comments, 22 discussion in the system for anchored discussion is seen to be more efficient and 23 Fto-the-point._ We conclude that for collaborative text comprehension by under24 graduate students, anchored discussion might be more suitable than traditional 25 forum discussion. Finally, the observed differences can be explained by the stronger 26 defined collaborative context in the system for anchored discussion, which focuses 27 participants_ collaborative intentions and their frames of reference.