ISLG 2014 - 3rd Workshop on Intelligent Support for Learning in Groups

We are pleased to announce that the third workshop on Intelligent Support for Learning in Groups (ISLG) will be held as a part of the 12th International Conference on Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS 2014) in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. The goal of this series of workshops is to bring together intelligent tutoring systems researchers with learning sciences researchers to share approaches and exchange information about adaptive intelligent collaborative learning support.
Technological advances have enabled the development of highly effective, deployable learning environments that support learners across a wide range of domains and age groups. As educational service providers, including mainstream universities, are deploying their courses to online learning platforms, and large volumes of educational content are accessible on mobile/tablet devices, students can now collaborate using educational technology in ways that were not previously possible. Intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) seek to individualize each student's learning experience, but this need not imply a solitary learner experience. Research in the learning sciences (LS) on collaborative learning activity has revealed the pedagogical benefits of learning in groups, as well as how to structure the activity to lead to productive interactions. A variety of recent systems have demonstrated ways in which an adaptive learning environment can incorporate and benefit from the presence of multiple learners. Similarly, students using computer-supported collaborative learning systems have been shown to benefit from the introduction of adaptive support that targets and improves the collaboration, but these pose challenges that might be addressed through interdisciplinary dialogue.
The theme of this year’s workshop is:
“Bridging the social and technical sides of intelligent collaborative learning support.”
In this workshop, we invite discussion and seek to explore ways in which the combination of collaborative and intelligent aspects of a system can benefit the learner by creating a more productive learning environment. Over the past few years, the ITS research community has started investigating extension of the fundamental techniques (student modeling, model-based tutors, integrated assessment, tutorial dialog, automated scaffolding, data mining, pedagogical agents, and so on) to support collaborative learning in groups.
We aim to explore ways that the current state of the art in intelligent support for learning in groups can be informed by learning sciences research on collaborative learning principles. The goals of this workshop are to form connections between the ITS and LS community with the outcome of writing two companion review or position papers for each community based on the themes of the workshop.