Title
Enhancing Scientific Reasoning and Discussion with Conversational Agents
Abstract
This paper investigates the use of conversational agents to scaffold online collaborative learning discussions through an approach called academically productive talk (APT). In contrast to past work on dynamic support for collaborative learning, which has involved using agents to elevate the conceptual depth of collaborative discussion by leading students in groups through directed lines of reasoning, this APT-based approach lets students follow their own lines of reasoning and promotes productive practices such as explanation of reasoning and refinement of ideas. Two forms of support are contrasted, namely, Revoicing support and Feedback support. The study provides evidence that Revoicing support resulted in significantly more intensive reasoning exchange between students in the chat and significantly more learning during the chat than when that form of support was absent. Another form of support, namely, Feedback support increased expression of reasoning while marginally decreasing the intensity of the interaction between students and did not affect learning.
Year
DOI
Venue
2013
10.1109/TLT.2013.25
TLT
Keywords
Field
DocType
feedback support,apt-based approach,dynamic support,collaborative learning,intensive reasoning exchange,revoicing support,productive practice,academically productive talk,enhancing scientific reasoning,online collaborative,conversational agents,collaborative discussion,psychology,intelligent agents,multi agent systems
World Wide Web,Intelligent agent,Computer aided instruction,Collaborative learning,Computer science,Knowledge management,Multi-agent system,Human–computer interaction
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
6
3
1939-1382
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
7
0.63
10
Authors
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Gregory Dyke1758.35
David Adamson2321.64
Iris Howley310510.71
Rosé Carolyn42126222.80