When students are working collaboratively and communicating verbally in a technology-enhanced environment, the system cannot track what collaboration is happening outside of the technology, making it difficult to fully assess the collaboration of the students and adapt accordingly. In this article, we propose using gaze measures as a proxy for…

Authoring tools have been shown to decrease the amount of time and resources needed for the development of Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs). Although collaborative learning has been shown to be beneficial to learning, most of the current authoring tools do not support the development of collaborative ITSs. In this paper, we discuss an extension…

To be able to provide better support for collaborative learning in Intelligent Tutoring Systems, it is important to understand how collaboration patterns change. Prior work has looked at the interdependencies between utterances and the change of dialogue over time, but it has not addressed how dialogue changes during a lesson, an analysis that…

Prior research shows that representational competencies that enable students to use graphical representations to reason and solve tasks is key to learning in many science, technology, engineering, and mathematics domains. We focus on two types of representational competencies: (1) "sense making" of connections by verbally explaining how…

Prior research shows that representational competencies that enable students to use graphical representations to reason and solve tasks is key to learning in many science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) domains. We focus on two types of representational competencies: (1) "sense making" of connections by verbally…

Collaborative learning has been shown to be beneficial for older students, but there has not been much research to show if these results transfer to elementary school students. In addition, collaborative and individual modes of instruction may be better for acquiring different types of knowledge. Collaborative Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS)…

Authoring tools for Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) have been shown to decrease the amount of time that it takes to develop an ITS. However, most of these tools currently do not extend to collaborative ITSs. In this paper, we illustrate an extension to the Cognitive Tutor Authoring Tools (CTAT) to allow for development of collaborative ITSs that…

Collaborative and individual learning are both frequently used in classrooms to support learning. However, little research has investigated the benefits of combining individual and collaborative learning, as compared to learning only individually or only collaboratively. With our study, we address this research gap. We compared a combined…

While collaborative Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs) have been designed for older students and have been shown to support sense-making behaviors, there has not been as much work on creating systems to support collaboration between elementary school students. We have developed and tested, with 84 students, individual and collaborative versions…

Research shows that multiple external representations can significantly enhance students' learning. Most of this research has focused on learning with text and 1 additional graphical representation. However, real instructional materials often employ multiple "graphical" representations (MGRs) in addition to text. An important open…

To learn from an error, students must correct the error by engaging in sense-making activities around the error. Past work has looked at how supporting collaboration around errors affects learning. This paper attempts to shed further light on the role that collaboration can play in the process of overcoming an error. We found that good…

Collaborative and individual instruction may support different types of knowledge. Optimal instruction for a subject domain may therefore need to combine these two modes of instruction. There has not been much research, however, on combining individual and collaborative learning with Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs). A first step is to expand…

Dual eye-tracking measures enable novel ways to test predictions about collaborative learning. For example, the research project we are engaging in uses measures of gaze recurrence to help understand how collaboration may differ when students are completing various learning activities focused on different learning objectives. Specifically, we…

While some studies found positive effects of collaboration on student learning in mathematics, others found none or even negative effects. This study evaluates whether the varying impact of collaboration can be explained by differences in the type of knowledge that is promoted by the instruction. If the instructional material requires students to…