Sustaining Continuous Collaborative Learning Flows in MOOCs: Orchestration Agent Approach

Ishari Amarasinghe (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain)

Davinia Hernández-Leo (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain)

Kalpani Manathunga (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain)

Anders Jonsson (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain)

Abstract: Collaborative learning spaces deployed in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) provide productive social learning opportunities. However, sustaining collaboration in these spaces is challenging. This paper provides a classification of MOOCs participants based on their behavior in a structured collaborative learning space. This analysis leads to requirements for new technological interventions to orchestrate collaborative learning flows in MOOCs. The paper proposes the design of an intelligent agent to address these requirements and reports a study which shows that the intervention of the proposed orchestration agent in a MOOC facilitates to maintain continuous yet meaningful collaboration learning flows.

Keywords: Collaborative Learning Flow Patterns (CLFPs), Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL), intelligent agents

Categories: H.5.0, I.2.0, K.3.1, L.2.0, L.3.6