Is knowledge best shared or given to individuals? Expanding the Content-based Knowledge Awareness paradigm

In the computer-supported collaborative learning domain the Content-based Knowledge Awareness approach has been established as a reliable way of improving knowledge exchange within transiently collaborating online groups. On this paradigm group members are given insight into the entirety of each other's task-related knowledge content at the outset of their collaboration. The present study aimed to discern the locus of the observed benefit of Content-based Knowledge Awareness by contrasting performance of groups with insight into their partner's knowledge against groups without such insight and, novelly, individuals who had access to the entirety of the group's knowledge but no collaboration partner. Task solving efficiency and long-term retention of the study material were measured. Contrary to expectations, participants in the Individual condition were fastest at solving the study task while retaining the same amount of the studied material as groups who were genuinely collaborating. This finding suggests that when an external representation of a collaborator's knowledge is available, interaction with the collaborator can hinder the exchange of this knowledge.