Enhancing quality of argumentation in a co-located collaborative environment through a tabletop system

This study validates the potential of a tabletop system to enhance students' quality and intensity of argumentation when engaging in co-located collaborative design activities. Twenty-four undergraduate students participated in a between-subjects design where one group used the proposed system and the other group used a paper-based approach. Overall students using the tabletop system over exceeded their peers in relation to their quality and intensity of argumentation. Further studies should increase the number of students to be able to generalize our findings.