COMPUTATIONAL METHOD FOR MEDIATING ASYNCHRONOUS GROUP DISCUSSIONS

摘要

The present invention is a computational method that allows for carrying out asynchronous group discussions over multiple issues among an arbitrary number of distant participants without human mediating effort. The objective is to support the task of mediating group discussions and to improve the outcomes of such activity in distance learning environments. The method uses an argumentation framework and intelligent algorithms to conduct group discussions in an intentional manner. The discussion advances in periodic discussion rounds, in which the participants are stimulated to provide answers and argumentations by filling up algorithmically generated discussion forms. At each discussion round, mediation mechanisms analyze the configuration of the discussion and propose new interactions among the participants, so as to focus the discussion on the polemical points and to assure that the participants are evenly distributed through the discussion topics. The discussion continues until no more interactions are found or the discussion time expires.