Training strategies and knowledge acquisition: Using the same reflective tools for different purpose
The Emma educational system embodies a Knowledge Based System (KBS) that models a problem-solving method defined at an abstract level. In order to allow different explicit problem-solvings, the KBS is based on a Task-Method modelisation. The objectives of this paper are (1) to explain how we take advantage of the flexibility provided by the modelisation by using analysis-modules that can study what the influence of the student's propositions on the rest of the solving is; (2) to highlight that e
Symba: a Framework to Support Collective Activities in an Educational Context
Symba is a Web-based framework designed to support collective activities in a learning context. It has been constructed with a double objective, (1) make students explicitly work out their organization and (2) provide tailorability features to allow the students to decide about the tools and resources they want to be accessible in order to achieve the tasks they have defined. Symba dissociates an “organizational level” and an “activity level”. The organization level allows students to organi
Structuring collective activities with tasks and plans
Symba is a Web-based framework designed to support collective activities in a learning context. In order to make students explicitly work out their organization it dissociates an "organizational level" and an "activity level" and allows students to describe their organization as plans composed of tasks.
Mixing Human and Software Agents: A Case Study
This paper describes a multi agent approach of the organisation of a collective activity within a pedagogical context. We consider pedagogical situations where students have to explicitly define the articulation of their collective work and then achieve the different tasks they have defined. Our objective is to support these students by taking some of these tasks in charge whilst making them work out such organisation features. For this purpose, we propose to consider that the group of students
Redefining the Turn-Taking Notion in Mediated Communication of Virtual Learning Communities
In our research on social interactions taking place in forum-type tools that virtual learning communities use, we have found that the users have the following particular temporal behavior: they answer generally some messages situated in different threads in a very short time period, in a digest-like way. This paper shows this work pattern through a quantitative study and proposes an integration of this work pattern in a Forum-type tool developed for supporting the interactions of virtual learnin
From MASK Knowledge Management Methodology to Learning Activities Described with IMS – LD
In this paper we present how the way knowledge capitalized using the Knowledge Management Mask methodology can be used to design E-learning activities by matching Mask models and the concepts proposed by the IMS-Learning Design modelling language. Our study consists in highlighting the e-learning aspects encapsulated in these MASK models carried out around a domain of activity, via a writing these elements in the description language IMS - Learning Design; in a preoccupation of reusability and r
Learning from Explanations: Extending One's Own Knowledge During Collaborative Problem Solving by At
On the basis of an experimental study, we propose a cognitive simulation model of collaborative problem solving and learning. In the experimental study, we investigated how qualitative and quantitative problem representations in classical mechanics are acquired and successively interrelated during collaborative problem solving. Two students, who were taught different aspects of classical mechanics, collaborated on problems which were beyond the competence of each of them individually. Students s
Cowos: A Model of Collective Work Situations to Support Modelling and Simulation Based Approaches of
This paper describes an operational model of collective work situations. This model is rooted in the CHAT theory. It allows creating multi-agent simulations where the agentsÂ’ behaviour is defined in terms that make salient organization issues, and allows building learning situations that focus on making students consider explicitly these issues.
Structural Awareness for Collaborative Learning Environments
In this paper we propose a peer-to-peer support approach that we call structural awareness support. The structural awareness aims to support the communication that takes place in virtual learning communities. Its emphasis is on revealing the group structure to its participants in order to promote collaborative interactions. This support has been implemented on a forum type tool called Mailgroup. It has been tested twice in different contexts, obtaining initial feedback of its pertinence accordin
The Competence of Learning Companion Agents
One recent approach in developing computer-based learning environments advocates the idea of creating a social context inside the computer. It is claimed that when the learner is engaged into a meaningful dialogue with the software actors his/her learning will benefit. In this paper we concentrate on the collaboration with artificial social actors as peer learners. How äableä should the learning companion agent be in order to maintain the motivation of the human learner to collaborate? It has
Supporting LearnersÂ’ Appropriation of a Web-Based Learning Curriculum
This article presents an approach and tools that can help learners appropriate a Web-based learning curriculum and become active participants in their learning. The approach is based on a detailed modeling of the curriculum and intends to equip the learners with different computer-based tools facilitating a multiple point of view perception of the curriculum, while promoting self evaluation and self regulation of the learnersÂ’ curriculum performance. The proposed architecture is generic and can
Using mobile technologies for multimedia tours in a traditional museum setting
Mobile technology was used to deliver learner-centred experiences to visitors at a geology museum without compromising the museumÂ’s aesthetic appeal. Two Flash-based multimedia tours were developed for the Hypertag Magus Guide system and trialled with 25 visitors in November 2005. Trial participants found the system fun and easy to use, though they requested headphones in order to hear the audio clearly. Several suggestions were provided to improve the tours including creating stronger links b
Fostering Simulation-based Learning in Medical Education with Collaboration Script
Active participation of learners is considered a major benefit of simulation-based learning. However, in most courses only few persons can act simultaneously in the simulator while the remaining group observes the running scenario. We investigated how these observation phases can be instructionally designed for more active participation. Research in educational psychology suggests the use of collaboration scripts to structure these observation phases. A collaboration script is an instruction tha
Making the abstract concrete: Visualizing mathematical solution procedures
This paper reports on an experiment investigating the effects of different kinds of computer-based visualizations on the acquisition of problem-solving skills in the domain of probability theory. Learners received either purely text-based worked examples, text plus an instruction to mentally imagine the examplesÂ’ contents, or the possibility of retrieving either static pictures or concrete animations that depicted the problem statement and the problem states achieved by applying a specific solu
Balancing situativity and formality: the importance of relating a formal language to interactive gra
A situated cognition theory is presented in which situated learning is viewed from a Vygotskian perspective: the developmental situativity theory. It is assumed that learning is basically a non-symbolic inductive process that is greatly enhanced by formal systems which act as tools. Instruction should provide students with an environment containing elements to allow for situated activity as well as with appropriate formal tools. Tarski's World, which is an instructional Interactive Graphical Rep
Promoting Self-Directed Learning in Simulation Based Discovery Learning Environments Through Intell
Providing learners with computer-generated feedback on their learning process in simulation-based discovery environments cannot be based on a detailed model of the learning process due to the "open" character of discovery learning. This paper describes a method for generating adaptive feedback for discovery learning based on an "opportunistic" learning model that takes the current hypothesis of the learner and the experiments performed to test this hypothesis as input. The method was applied in
A methodological alternative to media comparison studies: Linking information utilization strategies
Literature reviews on hypermedia learning have yet failed to show consistent positive effects of learner-controlled nonlinear information access. We argue that a possible reason for this lack of evidence in favor of hypermedia learning results from the fact that not sufficient attention is paid to the strategies of information utilization learners deploy. The few studies that do analyze these strategies fail to link them to an instructional approach, which hampers a deeper interpretation of stra
The impact of example comparisons on schema acquisition: Do learners really need multiple examples?
Comparing multiple examples within problem categories is usually considered a necessary prerequisite for schema acquisition. However, there is an evident lack of conclusive empirical evidence supporting this claim. Moreover, there are findings indicating that carefully designed one-example conditions may allow for profitable processes of example comparison as well. In line with this reasoning, we present an experiment - that builds up on a series of studies conducted by Quilici and Mayer (1996)
New tools in Social Practice: Learning, Medical Education and 3D Environments
Learning with different kinds of ICT-based tools is an important issue in todayÂ’s society. In this article we focus on how design of technology rich environments based on state of the art learning principles can give us new insights about how learning occur, and how we can develop new types of learning environments. Medical education constitutes the subject domain. There has been a considerable effort to develop 3D technologies in this field, and the article provides a careful review of how the
Mentoring, Metacognition and Music: Interaction Analyses and Implications for Intelligent Learning E
This paper reports on an empirical study of the interactive means by which a human teacher supported higher-order, musical thinking in learners. The aim of the work presented here was to create guidelines on how to make practical use of empirical research in teaching agent development. The research overview given in the introduction is followed by an illustrative example of mentoring interactions in musical learning. An elaboration of a musical education problem is then given and a description o
