Nobel Khandaker

ClassroomWiki: A Collaborative Wiki for Instructional Use with Multiagent Group Formation

Wikis today are being used as a tool to conduct collaborative writing assignments in classrooms. However, typical Wikis do not adequately address the assessment of individual student contributions toward their groups or provide any automated group formation mechanism. To improve these aspects, we have designed and implemented ClassroomWiki - a web-based collaborative Wiki writing tool. For the students, ClassroomWiki provides a web interface for writing and revising their groups Wiki and a topic-based forum for discussing their ideas during collaboration. When the students collaborate, ClassroomWiki tracks all student activities and builds detailed student models that represent their contributions toward their groups. For the teacher, ClassroomWiki provides a multiagent framework that uses the student models to form student groups to improve the collaborative learning of students. To investigate the impact of ClassroomWiki, we have conducted a three-week-long collaborative Wiki writing assignment in a university-level history course. The results suggest that ClassroomWiki can 1) improve the collaborative learning outcome of the students by its group formation framework, 2) help the teacher better assess a students contribution toward his or her group and avoid free riding, and 3) facilitate specific and precise teacher intervention with accurate and detailed tracking of student activities.

Lessons Learned from Comprehensive Deployments of Multiagent CSCL Applications I-MINDS and ClassroomWiki

Recent years have seen a surge in the use of intelligent computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) tools for improving student learning in traditional classrooms. However, adopting such a CSCL tool in a classroom still requires the teacher to develop (or decide on which to adopt) the CSCL tool and the CSCL script, design the relevant pedagogical aspects (i.e., the learning objectives, assessment method, etc.) to overcome the associated challenges (e.g., free riding, student assessment, forming student groups that improve student learning, etc). We have used a multiagent-based system to develop a CSCL application and multiagent-frameworks to form student groups that improve student collaborative learning. In this paper, we describe the contexts of our three generations of CSCL applications (i.e., I-MINDS and ClassroomWiki) and provide a set of lessons learned from our deployments in terms of the script, tool, and pedagogical aspects of using CSCL. We believe that our lessons would allow 1) the instructors and students to use intelligent CSCL applications more effectively and efficiently, and help to improve the design of such systems, and 2) the researchers to gain additional insights into the impact of collaborative learning theories when they are applied to real-world classrooms.

Forming and scaffolding human coalitions with a multi-agent framework

With the advancement of teleconferencing technologies, human users are collaborating online more than ever today. To improve the efficiency and effectiveness of online human coalitions, one needs to support and facilitate collaborations among human users who may or may not know of each other well and of how to work well together as a team or in a team. Here we propose the Integrated Human Coalition Formation and Scaffolding (iHUCOFS) framework. This multiagent framework considers the roles of an agent as both an advisor and a representative to a human user, the tradeoffs between forming and scaffolding human coalitions, and how scaffolding could impact human behaviors for future coalitions. Based on the axioms and design principles of iHUCOFS, we have developed VALCAM---an iterative auction based coalition formation algorithm. To investigate the feasibility and impact of VALCAM, we have conducted an experiment in a computer-supported collaborative learning environment and obtained promising results.

SimCoL: A Simulation Tool for Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning

Researchers designing the multiagent tools and techniques for computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environments are often faced with high cost, time, and effort required to investigate the effectiveness of their tools and techniques in large scale and longitudinal studies in a real-world environment containing human users. Here, we propose SimCoL, a multiagent environment that simulates collaborative learning among students and agents providing support to the teacher and the students. Our goal with SimCoL is to provide a comprehensive test bed for multiagent researchers to investigate 1) theoretical multiagent research issues, e.g., coalition formation, multiagent learning, and communication, where humans are involved and 2) the impact and effectiveness of the design and implementation of various multiagent-based tools and techniques (e.g., multiagent-based human coalition formation) in a real world, distributed environment containing human users. Our results show that SimCoL 1) closely captures the individual and collective learning behaviors of the students in a CSCL environment; 2) identify the impact of various key elements of the CSCL environment (e.g., student attributes and group formation algorithm) on the collaborative learning of students; 3) compare and contrast the impact of agent-based versus nonagent-based group formation algorithms; and 4) provide insights into the effectiveness of agent-based instructor support for the students in a CSCL environment.

Teaching Using Computer Games

Computer games have long been used for teaching. Current reviews lack categorization and analysis using learning models which would help instructors assess the usefulness of computer games. We divide the use of games into two classes: game playing and game development. We discuss the Input-Process-Outcome (IPO) model for the learning process when playing computer games. We also propose a new Input-Process-Outcome model for explaining the learning through game development (IPO-GD). Using both learning models, we review recent uses of computer games. Based on our review, we recommend: 1) using the IPO model when selecting games; 2) using the IPO-GD model for game development; and 3) creating support repositories for related curriculum material.