Coaching Collaboration by Comparing Solutions and Tracking Participation

This paper reports a new approach to coaching collaboration in a synchronous distance learning context. Prior work on supporting collaboration has relied largely on comparing student discourse to models of collaborative discourse. Comparison of student work to expert solutions is prevalent in individual coaching paradigms. Although these approaches are valuable, our approach evaluates the potential contribution of tracking student participation and comparing students' individual and group solutions. Our theoretical motivation is that conflicts between individual and group solutions constitute learning opportunities, provided that students recognize and address these conflicts. The coach encourages such negotiation when differences are detected, and also encourages participation in other ways. Our evaluation relied primarily on expert judgement and secondarily on student reactions to the coach. Results show that the quality of the generated advice was good; however, other knowledge sources should be consulted to improve coverage of advice to a broader range of situations and advice types.