In computer-supported collaborative learning, effective interaction patterns do not always occur spontaneously. Learners seem to have difficulties to participate actively in discourse and to share knowledge when working on collaborative learning tasks. Computer-supported scripts are activity programs implemented in the interface of CSCL environments that specify, sequence and assign roles and activities to collaborative learners that learners typically do not engage in spontaneously. For example, a computer-supported script may assign the roles of a "case analyst" and a "constructive critic". First, the script would have the case analyst provide a preliminary solution to a case, second have the critic question, criticize and modify the preliminary solution, and finally have the case analyst respond to the critic and provide a modified solution. Computer-supported scripts can be represented in the interface of CSCL environments through different types of scaffolds, such as sentence starters represented in the message windows of text-based computer-mediated communication.
Computer-supported scripts typically require very little prior training for learners. Teachers hardly need to intervene in the scripted collaborative processes of learners. Empirical studies have shown that computer-supported scripts can foster participation, specific interaction patterns in CSCL, and individual acquisition of domain-specific and domain-general knowledge.
The goals of the workshop are to introduce the idea of computer-supported scripting and to discuss a framework of how to specify computer-supported script components based on process-oriented educational approaches to collaborative learning. Based on this framework, the workshop aims to work out when and how to apply what kind of computer-supported script in different CSCL environments.

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