National Science Foundation (CCLI-2 Award #0618859)

The goal of the proposed project is to design, deploy and evaluate software tools that automatically structure and scaffold undergraduate student interactions within online discussion boards. Building on our Phase 1 work, we will analyze undergraduate and graduate student contributions to previous discussion topics and recommend the contributions that are useful, relevant or of interest to undergraduates who are contributing to a current discussion of the topic. The system will provide guidance using tutorial scaffolding strategies such as generating questions and comments, inviting participation and clarification. Student profiles will be used to encourage individual students to help other students on particular topics. Rich assessment techniques for analyzing discussions will be developed, and will be based on newly created course ontologies and course corpora. Evaluation studies conducted at three institutions will focus on the effects of different scaffolding interventions on student performance, STEM interest, and retention rates.

The intellectual merit of the project is represented in the assessment of how the collaboration and reflection features impact STEM undergraduate student performance and student interest in science and engineering, as well as in the development of innovative technologies for automatic scaffolding and assessment of student contributions. The results of the project will have broad social impact by enhancing the ability of female students and students from traditionally under-represented groups to participate fully and become successful in undergraduate STEM fields. As web-enhanced collaboration approaches become increasingly popular, the use of scaffolding tools that promote reflection and collaborative problem solving could significantly improve learning outcomes on a wide scale.