Workshop on Multiagent System Based Learning Environments (MASLE)

Information

Scope

The Workshop in Multiagent System Based Learning Environments (MASLE) intends to highlight the increasing impact of the Multiagent Systems (MAS) paradigm in educational learning environments in recent years.

MAS technologies have been used in different educational applications such as Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS), Interactive Learning Systems (ILS) and Intelligent Learning Environments (ILE) [Giraffa & Viccari, 1998; Gürer, 1998; Sklar & Richards, 2006; Viccari & Gluz, 2007]. The research focus of these field has been on improving interactivity among human and no human agents, ascribing different roles to agents (as in a classroom environment), promoting dialogue across different actors in learning environments [Self, 1992; Flores et al., 2005; Gluz et al., 2006], exploring possible ways to extract information from the application environment, such as, students' capabilities and needs [Kim & Baylor, 2007)], and finally, fostering student interactivity and building software environments in which students share their knowledge with synthetic agents, acquiring meta-cognitive abilities [Aleven et. al., 2006] . Automatic assessment is also an area in expansion where the use of data-mining techniques provide feedback from students' misconceptions and improve their results in on-line tests [Icke & Sklar, 2008].

Several new developments in Intelligent Learning Environments systems have made clear their proximity to research issues in the field of agent and multi-agent systems. Challenges around new teaching and learning environments imply two important aspects. Firstly, these systems must acquire more autonomy, and must show a skillful behaviour, which means they have to assume roles and learn how to behave in a social environment. Secondly, they must have a comprehensive understanding of the students or teacher using the system, which means having an internal representation of their beliefs and goals [Giraffa & Viccari, 1998] . Those aspects taken together put ITS research clearly in the field of agent and multi-agent systems. Moreover, interdisciplinary work across different fields has always been present in ITS research. Animated characters would provide an example of one such field (a research issue since the initial steps in Agent technology [Paiva & Machado, 1999; Rickel & Johnson, 1998; Lester at al., 1999; Saksiri et al., 2006]), leading to applications which marry entertainment with educational purposes ('edutainment'), making possible the symbiosis of things like emotional expression to create empathy with cognitive reasoning to answer 'intelligently' during agent vs. human interaction [Jaques & Viccari, 2007]

Clarifying the relationship between multi-agent systems and educational applications also improves the discussion around the background technical issues with respect to agent specific modelling languages, formal languages and agent interaction [Dillenbourg & Self, 1992; Self 1994; Mûra et al., 1998; Gluz et al., 2006].

Finally the focus on empirical research supported by the specific methodologies used in Intelligent Learning Environments, such as testing and results validation, can contribute to the discussion about testing and validating technology methodologies applied to MAS and related fields [Vicari & Gluz, 2007].

This workshop will be intended for all researchers dealing with MAS cognitive architectures for Intelligent Learning Environments, simulation (school management, class interaction), MAS social interaction (peer, collaborative and cooperative), agent-agent and human-agent interaction, interaction between peers, argumentation, Artificial Assistant and also Pedagogical agents.

Keywords

Intelligent systems in education, Educational informatics , Learning Environments

Topics

Meta-cognitive tutoring and self-regulated learning educational technologies
Multiagent based Intelligent Collaborative learning and classroom management applications in multi-agent systems
Animated Pedagogical Agents
Modeling multi-agent systems fostering creative activity
Modeling intelligent artificial assistants (helpers) and instructors
Multi-agent simulation educational environments
Agent-based learning systems
Emotional and cognitive agents
Storytelling/Narrative Engines
Formal models for multiagent based Intelligent Learning Environments
MAS based pedagogical games
Cognitive, emotion and personality modeling
Virtual instructors and peers in mixed reality environments
Flipped classroom

Committee

Organizing Committee

Néstor Darío Duque Méndez (Universidad Nacional de Colombia)
Rosa Vicari (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul UFRGS)
Ricardo Silveira (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina UFSC)

Program Committee

Néstor Darío Duque Méndez (Universidad Nacional de Colombia)
Ricardo Silveira (UFSC)
Ana Belén Gil González (University of Salamanca)
Jose Cascalho (Universidade dos Azores)
Rosa Vicari (UFRGS)
Demetrio Arturo Ovalle Carranza (Universidad Nacional de Colombia - Sede Medellín)
Marta Rosecler Bez (UFRGS)
Ramon Fabregat (Universitat de Girona)
Silvia Margarita Baldiris Navarro (Universitat de Girona)
Tiago Primo (Samsung Research Institute)
Martin Llamas-Nistal (University of Vigo)
Fernando De La Prieta (University of Salamanca)
María N. Moreno García (University of Salamanca)
Patricia Jaques (UNISINOS)
Júlia M. C. Silva (Instituto Federal do Rio Grande do Sul)
Rosangela Bez (SAMSUNG Research Institute)
Fernando Koch (SAMSUNG Research Institute)
Vicente Julian Inglada (Universidad Politecnica de Valencia)
Fernando Moreira (Universidad PortoCalense)
Juan Pavón (Universidad Complutense Madrid)
Angela Cristina Carrillo Ramos (Universidad Javeriana)