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International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education

AIED 2015: Artificial Intelligence in Education pp 115–124Cite as

Positive Impact of Collaborative Chat Participation in an edX MOOC

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 9112))

Abstract

A major limitation of the current generation of MOOCs is a lack of opportunity for students to make use of each other as resources. Analyses of attrition and learning in MOOCs both point to the importance of social engagement for motivational support and overcoming difficulties with material and course procedures. In this paper we evaluate an intervention that makes synchronous collaboration opportunities available to students in an edX MOOC. We have implemented a Lobby program that students can access via a live link at any time. Upon entering the Lobby, they are matched with other students that are logged in to it. Once matched, they are provided with a link to a chat room where they can work with their partner students on a synchronous collaboration activity, supported by a conversational computer agent. Results of a survival model in which we control for level of effort suggest that having experienced a collaborative chat is associated with a slow down in the rate of attrition over time by a factor of two. We discuss implications for design, limitations of the current study, and directions for future research.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Carnegie Mellon University, 5000 Forbes Ave., Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Oliver Ferschke, Diyi Yang, Gaurav Tomar & Carolyn Penstein Rosé

Authors
  1. Oliver Ferschke
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  2. Diyi Yang
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  3. Gaurav Tomar
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  4. Carolyn Penstein Rosé
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Oliver Ferschke .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

    Cristina Conati

  2. Computer Science Department, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA

    Neil Heffernan

  3. Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand

    Antonija Mitrovic

  4. E.T.S.I. Informática, Universidad National de Educacion a Distancia, Madrid, Spain

    M. Felisa Verdejo

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© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Ferschke, O., Yang, D., Tomar, G., Rosé, C.P. (2015). Positive Impact of Collaborative Chat Participation in an edX MOOC. In: Conati, C., Heffernan, N., Mitrovic, A., Verdejo, M. (eds) Artificial Intelligence in Education. AIED 2015. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9112. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19773-9_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19773-9_12

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-19772-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-19773-9

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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