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This thesis is an initial test of the hypothesis that superficial measures suffice for measuring collaboration among pairs of students solving complex math problems, where the degree of collaboration is categorized at a high level. Data were collected

in the form of logs from students' tablets and the vocal interaction

This thesis is an initial test of the hypothesis that superficial measures suffice for measuring collaboration among pairs of students solving complex math problems, where the degree of collaboration is categorized at a high level. Data were collected

in the form of logs from students' tablets and the vocal interaction between pairs of students. Thousands of different features were defined, and then extracted computationally from the audio and log data. Human coders used richer data (several video streams) and a thorough understand of the tasks to code episodes as

collaborative, cooperative or asymmetric contribution. Machine learning was used to induce a detector, based on random forests, that outputs one of these three codes for an episode given only a characterization of the episode in terms of superficial features. An overall accuracy of 92.00% (kappa = 0.82) was obtained when

comparing the detector's codes to the humans' codes. However, due irregularities in running the study (e.g., the tablet software kept crashing), these results should be viewed as preliminary.
ContributorsViswanathan, Sree Aurovindh (Author) / VanLehn, Kurt (Thesis advisor) / T.H CHI, Michelene (Committee member) / Walker, Erin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
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Description
Research in the learning sciences suggests that students learn better by collaborating with their peers than learning individually. Students working together as a group tend to generate new ideas more frequently and exhibit a higher level of reasoning. In this internet age with the advent of massive open online courses

Research in the learning sciences suggests that students learn better by collaborating with their peers than learning individually. Students working together as a group tend to generate new ideas more frequently and exhibit a higher level of reasoning. In this internet age with the advent of massive open online courses (MOOCs), students across the world are able to access and learn material remotely. This creates a need for tools that support distant or remote collaboration. In order to build such tools we need to understand the basic elements of remote collaboration and how it differs from traditional face-to-face collaboration.

The main goal of this thesis is to explore how spoken dialogue varies in face-to-face and remote collaborative learning settings. Speech data is collected from student participants solving mathematical problems collaboratively on a tablet. Spoken dialogue is analyzed based on conversational and acoustic features in both the settings. Looking for collaborative differences of transactivity and dialogue initiative, both settings are compared in detail using machine learning classification techniques based on acoustic and prosodic features of speech. Transactivity is defined as a joint construction of knowledge by peers. The main contributions of this thesis are: a speech corpus to analyze spoken dialogue in face-to-face and remote settings and an empirical analysis of conversation, collaboration, and speech prosody in both the settings. The results from the experiments show that amount of overlap is lower in remote dialogue than in the face-to-face setting. There is a significant difference in transactivity among strangers. My research benefits the computer-supported collaborative learning community by providing an analysis that can be used to build more efficient tools for supporting remote collaborative learning.
ContributorsNelakurthi, Arun Reddy (Author) / Pon-Barry, Heather (Thesis advisor) / VanLehn, Kurt (Committee member) / Walker, Erin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
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Description
Online discussion forums have become an integral part of education and are large repositories of valuable information. They facilitate exploratory learning by allowing users to review and respond to the work of others and approach learning in diverse ways. This research investigates the different comment semantic features and the effect

Online discussion forums have become an integral part of education and are large repositories of valuable information. They facilitate exploratory learning by allowing users to review and respond to the work of others and approach learning in diverse ways. This research investigates the different comment semantic features and the effect they have on the quality of a post in a large-scale discussion forum. We survey the relevant literature and employ the key content quality identification features. We then construct comment semantics features and build several regression models to explore the value of comment semantics dynamics. The results reconfirm the usefulness of several essential quality predictors, including time, reputation, length, and editorship. We also found that comment semantics are valuable to shape the answer quality. Specifically, the diversity of comments significantly contributes to the answer quality. In addition, when searching for good quality answers, it is important to look for global semantics dynamics (diversity), rather than observe local differences (disputable content). Finally, the presence of comments shepherd the community to revise the posts by attracting attentions to the posts and eventually facilitate the editing process.
ContributorsAggarwal, Adithya (Author) / Hsiao, Ihan (Thesis advisor) / Lopez, Claudia (Committee member) / Walker, Erin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
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Description
Concept maps are commonly used knowledge visualization tools and have been shown to have a positive impact on learning. The main drawbacks of concept mapping are the requirement of training, and lack of feedback support. Thus, prior research has attempted to provide support and feedback in concept mapping, such as

Concept maps are commonly used knowledge visualization tools and have been shown to have a positive impact on learning. The main drawbacks of concept mapping are the requirement of training, and lack of feedback support. Thus, prior research has attempted to provide support and feedback in concept mapping, such as by developing computer-based concept mapping tools, offering starting templates and navigational supports, as well as providing automated feedback. Although these approaches have achieved promising results, there are still challenges that remain to be solved. For example, there is a need to create a concept mapping system that reduces the extraneous effort of editing a concept map while encouraging more cognitively beneficial behaviors. Also, there is little understanding of the cognitive process during concept mapping. What’s more, current feedback mechanisms in concept mapping only focus on the outcome of the map, instead of the learning process.

This thesis work strives to solve the fundamental research question: How to leverage computer technologies to intelligently support concept mapping to promote meaningful learning? To approach this research question, I first present an intelligent concept mapping system, MindDot, that supports concept mapping via innovative integration of two features, hyperlink navigation, and expert template. The system reduces the effort of creating and modifying concept maps while encouraging beneficial activities such as comparing related concepts and establishing relationships among them. I then present the comparative strategy metric that modes student learning by evaluating behavioral patterns and learning strategies. Lastly, I develop an adaptive feedback system that provides immediate diagnostic feedback in response to both the key learning behaviors during concept mapping and the correctness and completeness of the created maps.

Empirical evaluations indicated that the integrated navigational and template support in MindDot fostered effective learning behaviors and facilitating learning achievements. The comparative strategy model was shown to be highly representative of learning characteristics such as motivation, engagement, misconceptions, and predicted learning results. The feedback tutor also demonstrated positive impacts on supporting learning and assisting the development of effective learning strategies that prepare learners for future learning. This dissertation contributes to the field of supporting concept mapping with designs of technological affordances, a process-based student model, an adaptive feedback tutor, empirical evaluations of these proposed innovations, and implications for future support in concept mapping.
ContributorsWang, Shang (Author) / Walker, Erin (Thesis advisor) / VanLehn, Kurt (Committee member) / Hsiao, Sharon (Committee member) / Long, Yanjin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019