A Coached Collaborative Learning Environment for Entity-Relationship Modeling

We discuss the design of an agent for coaching collaborative learning in a distance learning context. The learning domain is entity-relationship modeling, a domain in which collaborative problem solving is regularly practiced, and for which there exist formally interpretable representations of problem solutions known as entity-relationship diagrams. The design of the coach was based on socio-cognitive conflict theory, which states that collaborative learning is effective to the extent that learners identify and discuss conflicts in their beliefs. Students begin by constructing individual entity-relationship diagrams expressing their solution to a database modeling problem, and then work in small groups to agree upon a group solution. The coaching agent leverages learning opportunities by encouraging students to share and discuss solution components that conflict with components of the group solution. Our work shows one way to utilize domain specific knowledge in order to facilitate collaboration.