A collaborative learning environment based on intelligent agents

One of the current trends in the research on Al applied to computer assisted learning is the area of Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL). A CSCL environment should include software elements that assist the learners in the application of the domain knowledge and promote opportunities of effective collaboration and learning. In this paper we present a CSCL environment based on two kinds of intelligent agents, domain agents and mediator agents, modeled based on ideas from distributed artificial intelligence. The domain agents are able to assist the learners in the application of domain knowledge elements. In order to support the collaboration between learners each mediator agent constructs and maintains a learner model represented as a set of beliefs about the capabilities, commitments, intentions and learning opportunities of its learner. Mediator agents cooperate by exchanging their beliefs about the capabilities of their learners and proposing the practice of those knowledge elements that promote assistance among learners, keeping the group heterogeneous and collaborative. Based on its learner model the mediator agent is able to support awareness in the environment and maintain the learning possibilities of its learner in a community of practice. This framework provides a collaborative environment for second language learning based on an implementation of the theoretical concepts of social learning (Vygotsky, L. S., 1978, Mind in Society: the Development of Higher Psychological Processes. London: Harvard University Press) and agent oriented programming (Shoham, Y., 1993, Agent-oriented programming. Artificial Intelligence, 60, 51-92). (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.