Use of Intelligent Agents to Facilitate Group Learner Participation in Collaborative mLearning

Abstract

Purpose – Learning Management Systems (LMS) provide a platform for collaborative learning with features such as online group discussions. Grouping members together to participate in a group discussion does not guarantee their participation in the online discussion. However, the use of intelligent agents to facilitate group participation can motivate group members to participate in the online group discussions leading to improved levels of group knowledge construction. This paper discusses an experimental design for evaluating facilitated learner participation in online group discussions using intelligent agents. Method – In our experimental design we use two treatment groups (turn taking and informative feedback group facilitations) and one control group. We compared the levels of group knowledge construction amongst the three groups.