Formation and Scaffolding Human Coalitions in I-MINDS – A Computer-Supported Col- laborative Learning Environment

Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning environments (CSCL) are used today as a platform for delivering distance education and as a tool to improve student understanding using collaborative learning methods. The success of a CSCL environment in improving the knowledge of a student depends on the quality of group work of its participants. However, forming human user groups that allow all the users work productively is difficult because of the dynamic nature of the human users and the complex interplay of human factors (e.g., comfort level, proficiency, etc.). Furthermore, human user behavior changes over time due to the learning and other various external stimuli. So, to make the coalitions productive for the students, the framework need to take into account how humans learn from working in a team, accommodate that change (i.e., provide support to the coalition), and use it to improve the quality of the coalitions. iHUCOFS is a multiagent framework that aims to form and support human coalitions. VALCAM is an implementation of the iHUCOFS framework that forms and supports the learner coalitions in I-MINDS – a CSCL environment. Though not conclusive, the preliminary results of using VALCAM in I-MINDS indicate that VALCAM can make an impact on the learner coalitions formed in I-MINDS.