A Group Formation Tool for e-Learning Environments

Group formation in e-learning environments is a challenging area. In this paper we present a web-based group formation tool that supports the instructor to create both homogeneous and heterogeneous groups based on up to three criteria and the learner to negotiate the grouping. Moreover, the instructor is allowed to manually group students based on specific criteria. A discriminative feature of this tool is the use of the Fuzzy C-Means algorithm for creating homogeneous groupings, which provides for each learner the probability that s/he belongs to different groups. This information is also provided to the instructor when he needs to manually exchange learners or intervene in the initial grouping. Moreover, the learners are informed for the groups formed and they are allowed to negotiate their group assignment. Preliminary evaluation results provide indications for the efficiency of the proposed approach in forming homogeneous and heterogeneous groups in a real context.