In collaborative learning, explanation occurs naturally or spontaneously. Less sophisticated messages from the explainer do not produce effects. This confirms that the effect of explanation is related to the cognitive activity of building the explanation. We do not have knowledge of the cognitive effects of the other steps of hetero-explanation, mainly tailoring the explanation to the listener, and delivering the explanation. The current view is however not to consider the elaboration and delivery of explanation as two separate steps.
Explanation is viewed as an interactive process in which two partners try to understand each other.
These interactions influence the explanation generation from the very beginning. This dimension is important for the development of peer tutoring activities in distance education. Since the more able peer does also benefit from collaboration, it may be interesting to mix students from different levels, for instance from different academic years. Such activities can be credited to both students. This approach requires however that the problem to be solved by the partners keeps a certain complexity even for the more skilled peer.