Chapter

Intelligent Tutoring Systems

Volume 5091 of the series Lecture Notes in Computer Science pp 343-352

Scaffolding On-Line Discussions with Past Discussions: An Analysis and Pilot Study of PedaBot

  • Jihie KimAffiliated withInformation Sciences Institute, University of Southern California
  • , Erin ShawAffiliated withInformation Sciences Institute, University of Southern California
  • , Sujith RaviAffiliated withInformation Sciences Institute, University of Southern California
  • , Erin TavanoAffiliated withInformation Sciences Institute, University of Southern California
  • , Aniwat ArromratanaAffiliated withInformation Sciences Institute, University of Southern California
  • , Pankaj SardaAffiliated withInformation Sciences Institute, University of Southern California

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Abstract

PedaBot is a new discussion scaffolding application designed to aid student knowledge acquisition, promote reflection about course topics and encourage student participation in discussions. It dynamically processes student discussions and presents related discussions from a knowledge base of past discussions. This paper describes the system and presents a comparative analysis of the information retrieval techniques used to respond to free-form student discussions, a combination of topic profiling, term frequency-inverse document frequency, and latent semantic analysis. Responses are presented as annotated links that students can follow and rate. We report a pilot study of PedaBot based on student viewings, student ratings, and a small survey. Initial results indicate that there is a high level of student interest in the feature and that its responses are moderately relevant to student discussions.

Keywords

threaded discussion discussion scaffolding information retrieval on-line learning environment