Nikolaos Avouris

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EPAL\Symposium Corpus d'apprentissage en
ligne Conception, réutilisation,
échange Grenoble 8th June, 2007
Supporting Collaborative Learning and Interaction
Analysis Synergo and ActivityLens

• Nikolaos Avouris
• University of Patras, Human-Computer Interaction
  Group

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The University of Patras

• The 3rd larger Greek University in terms of
  academic staff and number of students - Over
  20,000 students
• 22 faculties
• Largest campus in Greece

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ICTAI 2007 and ECAI 2008 Conferences venue
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Outline

• On Small Group Collaborative Learning Synergo
  and other tools
• ActivityLens and analysis of embodied
  interaction through microethnographic studies
• Towards a common format for collaborative
  activity and analysis data

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On Collaborative LearningG. Stahl (CSCL 2005)
suggests that Collaborative Learning should be
primarily analyzed at the small group unit of
analysisSuthers (CSCL 2005) suggests a
triangularization between experimental
methodology, descriptive ethnomethodology and
iterative design
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Small group mediated collaboration by sharing
activity space/ symbols/ rules providing direct
communication (chat)
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On iterative design of Collaboration Support
Tools for Small Groups

• Representation 2
• ModelsCreator 3
• ModellingSpace
• Synergo

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Representation 2 ( Fidas et al. 2001)
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ModelsCreator 3 ( Fidas et al. CSCL 2002, 2003)
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ModellingSpace (Margaritis et al. 2003)
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Synergo ( Margaritis et al. 2004, 2005)
control panel
chat window
Shared activity board
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Common characteristics of mediating tools

• chat based communication
• shared workspace used as persistent
  representation of the problem space
• Grounding through combination of chat and shared
  workspace actions

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Chat medium affordances

• Visual and/or auditory cues are not available
• No production blocking-gtoverlapping exchanges
• Persistence of messages substantiation of
  conversation
• Loose inter-turn connectedness
• Possibility of simultaneous engagement in
  multiple threads
• Verbal deixis spans throughout the dialogue
• Posters may use short messages to increase
  referent/message coherency (Garcia and Jacobs
  1999)
• Participants begin new topics fairly much at will
  (ONeil Martin, 2003)

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Shared workspace affordances

• Feedthrough (Dix et. al., 1993)
• Various degrees of coupling (Salvador et. al.,
  1996)
• Workspace can be used as an persistent
  representation of the task that allows efficient
  nonverbal communication
• Workspace artefacts act as conversational props
  (Hutchins, 1990)
• Different communication acts Deictic references,
  Demonstrations, Manifesting actions, Visual
  evidence (Gutwin, Greenberg, 2002)

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Grounding through actions on a workspace
(Suthers, 2006), (Dillenbourg Traum 2006)

• Sequences of actions in which
• (1) one participants action in a medium is
• (2) taken up by another participant in a manner
  that indicates understanding of its meaning, and
• (3) the first participant signals acceptance

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Data generated by studies on collaborative
learning and situated conditions

• Secondary Education and University Courses
• Studies of experimental nature or
• descriptive micro-ethnographic studies in the
  context of authentic courses
• Various subject matters, e.g. Science, Maths,
  Computer Science,
• Biology, etc.

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Many verbal data (chat messages, transcript of
oral interaction, text content in symbols)- Need
for tools for language mappings

• History Modifier Tool in Synergo

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Examples of recent studies on effectiveness and
sensitivity on context parameters

• Group size
• Coordination mechanism
• Heterogeneity of learning material

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Group size study groups of 2-4 students
B Group Activity balance and S skill balance.
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Study 2 Coordination protocol
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Study 3 Heterogeneity of background resources
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Typical data (the UOM 2006 data set)
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• On Analysis of collaboration data

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Synergo Analysis Tool Dialogue annotation
(b)
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Object-orientedness of action and dialogue

• Dialogue events can also be related to objects
  manually
• Objects have owners and history (OCAF Analysis
  framework, Avouris et al. 2003)

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re
Synergo Analysis Tool Visualizations of logged
actions
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Beyond fingertip actions Capturing other
modalities

• Physical Space
• Mobility
• Connectivity
• Multimodality
• Context of use

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Example Various studies of museum educational
activities (Stoica, Fiotakis et al. 2005, 2007)

• video recording of activity (including context
  and also device screen)
• audio recording of activity
• images - observers notes

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Example Definition of a coding scheme involving
spatial interactions
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ActivityLens (ex CoLAT), Fiotakis et al., 2007

• Association of various media and modalities
• Building of abstractions
• (multilayer
• annotation)

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An exampleStudy of collaborative algebra
learning through the Algebra Cognitive Tutor
(Rummel, McLaren, Spada, 2007)
Audio recording of students interaction Screen
capture of Cognitive Tutor Download extract of
logged data from central database
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Multilayer Structured data
level1 ( lttimestampgt, ltactorgt, lttoolgt ltactiongt
ltattributegt, lttypologygt, ltcommentsgt ) level2 (
ltidgt, lttypologygt, ltlist-of-actorsgt,
ltlist-of-toolsgt, ltstart-timegt, ltend-timegt,
ltcommentsgt ) is related to level1 group of
events level3 ( ltidgt, lttypologygt,
ltlist-of-actorsgt, ltlist-of-toolsgt, ltstart-timegt,
ltend-timegt, ltcommentsgt ) is related to level2
group of events typical useLevel1 operations,
Level2 actions, Level3 activities, plans
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Definition of abstractions
Operations Actions Plans Study
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Towards a common format for collaborative
activity data
Karhimanis et al. (2006)

• Providing interoperability between CSCL tools
• Compatibility between CSCL interaction and
  analysis tools (both ways)
• Integrated description of data produced by a wide
  range of media used in a CSCL activity
• uniform description of data used as input for
  analysis
• Sharing of results
• re-usability of data
• Understanding of data and interpretation of
  findings

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Integrated description of data produced by a wide
range of computer tools used in collaborative
activities
Observer (hand)notes
CSCL Tools
Forums, IM
PDAs
Analysis tools
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Requirements for application of the data model

• Functionality of potentially compliant tools
  should be changed, so that they log data in an
  XML file following the models format
• log file is transformed into an equivalent log
  file compliant to the model without changing
  logging functionality of tool (e.g via XSL
  Transformaitons)

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Basic units of the model
context
user
role
group
tool
user-interface object types
action
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Mapping on a process model for analysis of
collaboration (Harrer et al. 2007)
Validation in Modelling Space Synergo ColAT/Activi
tyLens Noldus Observer PHPbb Moodle
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The way ahead Intended functionality

• Browsing according to
• Contextual data
• Kinds of tasks
• Analysis method
• The type of evaluation results
• Values of evaluation results
• Further annotation of analysis results
• Meta-analyses
• Integrating multiple studies comparing results
• Categorizing studies and investigating how
  certain factors affect results

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thank youhci.ece.upatras.gr