Research Day 2005 - Planning

Basic Info

[Official Announcement]
[Proposal Submission]
Abstracts (Maximum 250 words) due: Midnight April 4, 2005
Presentation: Tuesday, April 26, 2005; 11am-3pm (Daskalakis Athletic Center)
Poster Board Dimensions: 4 ft. (height) x 8 ft. (width)
Contact Alex Vorobiev (av37@drexel.edu) to have all 4 posters next to each other.

Criteria for Evaluation

Presenter Discussion (How well was the presenter able to discuss the rationale, purpose, conclusions and significance?)
Presenter Involvement in Project (How much of the work was actually performed by the presenter?)
Content (Originality and significance)
Visual Presentation (Clarity, organization and visual appeal)

VMT Posters:

VMT Overview: Virtual Math Teams: Virtual Teams, Real Math. (Johann & Gerry)
- Abstract (243 words):
- A 2004 report from the Pew Internet & American Life project indicates that 53 million American adults use instant messaging (IM) and its appeal is especially strong among younger internet users. Almost half of the users in the Gen Y age group reported using IM more frequently than email. On the other hand, according to the results of the 2003 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), the performance in mathematics and problem solving of 15-year-old American students is lower than that of the average student in most of the 30 countries examined. Could these two opposing trends intersect? The Virtual Math Teams (VMT) project is an NSF-funded research program that investigates the innovative use of online collaborative environments to support effective K-12 mathematics learning. VMT implements a multidisciplinary approach to research and development that integrates (a) the quantitative modeling of students’ interactions online, (b)ethnographic and conversation analytical studies of collaborative problem solving, and (c) an iterative process of software design (see related VMT posters). Key research issues addressed include: How to group students for effective online collaboration; how to design rich mathematical problems that foster collaboration and deep mathematical reasoning; how to structure the online collaborative experience; and how to study the forms of collaboration and reasoning that take place. Preliminary findings point to unique features of collaborative interactions such as the multidimensional aspects of interaction; the use of expository and exploratory talk; and also to challenges of coordinating the participants’ perspectives, resources, and strategies.

Poster Elements:
Rationale - Purpose: To develop an online environment that fosters collaborative reflection and meta-cognitive interactions, drives the elaboration of deep understanding of math, and leverages peer interaction to develop mathematical communication and problem-solving skills
Methods - Activities: Statistical analyses of interaction patterns, conversation and ethnomethodological analyses, and iterative software design.
Findings - Conclusions: Indentifed unique micro-features of collaborative interactions that might be related to mathematical concept development and inform a first set of functional requirements for the design of an effective online environment to support collaborative mathematics.
Significance - Next Steps:

Quantitative Analysis (Murat & Wes) -- submitted version (244 words)
- Abstract
- The Virtual Math Teams (VMT) project is an NSF-funded research program aimed at investigating the innovative use of online collaborative environments to support effective K-12 mathematics learning. In general, collaborative learning is a phenomenon which has still not been fully understood. Earlier efforts in collaborative learning research include studies of various variables that aim to investigate whether and under what circumstances collaborative learning is more effective than individual learning. However, the highly dynamic nature of collaborative learning environments hinders the task of designing traditional experimental studies that focus on the impact of individual variables on learning. This situation motivates the need for more detailed, micro-level analysis of interaction in the context of computer-supported collaborative learning environments.

At the VMT project we currently employ quantitative methods to conduct a multi-level analysis of micro features involved in our context. For this purpose, we conducted numerous online experiments and formed a dataset of collaborative sessions. A multi-dimensional coding scheme has been designed and applied on a selected corpus of transcripts in an effort to statistically analyze many aspects of this dataset. A computational model based on our coding scheme has been developed to aid our exploratory work. Our initial efforts involve compiling descriptive statistics for each group and clustering sessions in terms of the way participants organize their problem solving activities. In the light of our initial findings a statistical model is being developed to further reveal/analyze patterns of interaction in the context of virtual math teams.

Poster Elements:
Rationale - Purpose: to conduct micro-level analysis of interaction in collaborative math problem solving environments.
Methods - Activities: Coding Scheme Design, Content Analysis (refers to assigning pre-specified labels to each posting), Thread Analysis (refers to linking postings that are related to each other according to their conversational and problem solving content), Explorative Statistics, Data Mining (involves basic text mining and sequential pattern mining)
Findings - Conclusions: A computational model based on thread information; Automated methods for data analysis
Significance - Next Steps: Our study pointed out some limitations of existing content analysis schemes for undertaking micro-level studies of interaction. We attempted to address these limitations by utilizing thread information as an additional resource to better capture the sequential unfolding of events in collaborative environments. The VMT project involves other research methods for analyzing interaction as well. We will be refining/complementing our quantitative analysis schemes according to the results we obtain from other techniques.

Conversation Analysis (Ramon & Allan)
- Abstract
- The VMT Project investigates issues of online collaborative math problem solving. Data gathered by this project consists of chat logs captured through AOL® IM, Babylon Chat, ConcertChat and Blackboard. A tool in a suite of methodologies used to analyze these logs is conversation analysis. Unlike other tools which use investigator-stipulated theoretical and conceptual definitions of research questions, conversation analysis seeks “to illuminate how actions, events, objects, etc., are produced and understood rather than how language and talk are organized as analytically separable phenomena.” (Pomerantz and Fehr, 1997). Some of the initial findings show:
  - the uniqueness of chat as similar to, but different from conversation and text
  - how a proposal for a problem-solving strategy is made, accepted or rejected
  - how misunderstanding is identified and subsequently corrected
  - how an explanation of a solution can be handed from one chat participant to another.

Allan's revision:
The VMT project uses Conversation Analysis (CA) to identify and investigate the interactional methods by which middle school and high school students interact, using AOL® IM, Babylon Chat, ConcertChat and Blackboard, to collaboratively solve math problems. Using CA, we treat problem-solving as an interactional achievement of participation rather than as an internal and private process of the individual. We examine chat logs and seek to describe in detail the publically available and observable interactional procedures by which these problem-solving collaborations are achieved. In these online, problem-solving chats, interaction involves the production and distribution of text messages and, on occasion, other artifacts such as drawings, diagrams, etc. These are the principle resources available to participants for conducting their interaction and are thus the primary analytical data from which we are able to recognize and describe participants’ publically available and interactionally achieved sense-making procedures. Interaction conducted through textually mediated technologies like AIM®, Babylon and ConcertChat are both similar to and significantly different from speech-based conversational interaction in important ways. As a text-based method of conducting interaction, chat offers different affordances for problem solving. In analyzing chats, we have begun to identify and describe:
- How multiple threading of chat interaction is used as a resource in problem-solving,
- Ways that participants put forward and take up proposed problem-solving strategies,
- How understanding and misunderstandings are done as interactional achievements in chat,
- Different ways that collaboration and cooperation are organized as participation frameworks.

Poster Elements:
Rationale - Purpose: To identify the methods and procedures by which students engage in online, chat-based, collaborative math problem-solving.
Methods - Activities: Conversation Analysis, development of hybrid coding methodology combining Conversation Analysis and statistical analysis of chat logs.
Findings - Conclusions: Alternative organizations of problem-solving activity in online chats, detailed descriptions of interactional procedures for doing collaborative, chat-based problem-solving.
Significance - Next Steps: Finalize a top-down coding approach using CA, develop an inventory of interactional methods for doing collaboration in online chats.

Software Design of the VMT (Nan & Steve)
- Abstract
- The Virtual Math Teams (VMT) project is an NSF-funded research program aimed at investigating the innovative use of online collaborative environment to support effective K-12 mathematics learning. The software design of the VMT project has several goals: first, it aims to provide software tools to support small group collaboration; second, to automate the procedures of registration, the grouping of participants, and the facilitation of collaboration sessions; third, to provide support for archiving data and supporting the participants’ future learning as well as for research purposes. The general considerations for the software design can be organized from different perspectives: the student perspective, the moderator (facilitator) perspective, the system perspective, and the research perspective. For example, software tools should be easy to acquire or access by students and they should be easy to use. From the moderator’s perspective, one may want the system to have the function to support automated registration, facilitation, etc.

The software design process requires understanding small group collaboration in math problem solving in order to identify user needs and requirements for the software tools. Exploratory studies of collaboration were conducted in which students experimented using AOL instant messenger to solve complex math problems. An open-source tool Babylon, which includes a shared drawing board, was used in subsequent tests. The collaboration sessions are recorded as chat logs, which are analyzed using different methodologies including qualitative and quantitative ones. Concert Chat, a software tool developed in Germany was used in the class experiments in HCI courses taught by Gerry Stahl. We found the needs for incorporating reference tools including reference between chat messages and that between graph and chat, drawing tools, etc. Prototypes are designed to reflect such user needs.

Poster Elements:
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Methods - Activities:
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Significance - Next Steps:

ResearchDay05

Research Day 2005 - Planning

Basic Info

Categories:

Criteria for Evaluation

VMT Posters: