This article discusses the effectiveness of the adaptations of criteria applied to the categories of Grice's cooperative principle and the possible occurrence of social loafing in collaborative writing activities. It presents: the concept of an activity developed in a wiki editor of a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE); and the strategies of engagement and their application to two higher education classes in the area of applied social sciences. It analyzes data and testimonials relating to difficulties to master the editor, the clarity of evaluation criteria and the contribution of experience to the understanding of a concept of collaborative work. Research results have shown evidence of social loafing and other process losses and, as to the effectiveness of the application of the criteria added to the categories of Grice's principle, it was found that these criteria are effective for individual contributions, but do not consider subtleties and dimensions relating to activities in collaboration. It is concluded that the collaboration proposal is not a barrier per se, although technical difficulties discourage participants. A collaborative editor that disregards the immediate integration between those involved generates limited contributions and results in the use of alternatives outside the work environment, which dilutes the cooperative proposal. The division of tasks, responsibilities of managing the editor pages and setting rules for interventions should be made explicit so that all those involved are confident and motivated about the conditions of their participation. By doing so, there is a decrease in process losses and an increase in the effectiveness of responses to the objectives of the teaching-learning experience.
Collaborative work; Learning; Process Losses; Collaborative Learning Environment
