The analytical framework and research design tested and refined empirically in this study proposed a set of terms and research tools that may be useful for further researches that study students' ways of knowing by identifying and defining relevant components of the complex new environments.
The research design of current study made possible for us to analyze how students make meaning with the learning resources in the course of algebra, but the fact that the theoretical framework and research design are set without depending on a particular content area allows us to assume that they can also be useful in studies of additional content areas and studies dealing with new learning environments from a social-semiotic approach.
Instead of algebra it is possible to take for example arithmetic or differential and integral calculus (or additional area, that it not necessarily mathematics) and insert appropriate questions for different populations and for different ages by the same research procedures: printed diagram or video in the activity in the first stage, the three types of ID (according to organizational function) for the similary activity in the second stage and the concluding discussion in the third stage.
The three-steps procedure enabled to examine the contribution of the ID to completing the activity and track the student's process in constructing knowledge.