Simulating pedagogical agents in a virtual learning environment
Silje Jondahl, Anders I. Mørch · 2002
CoPAS (Collaboration Patterns Agent Simulation) is a simulation study carried out with the Wizard of Oz method. Students used a groupware system to solve a learning task in the domain of object-oriented analysis and design using UML (Unified Modelling Language) without meeting each other face-to-face. Simulated software agents (human experts) gave advice for various knowledge-intensive tasks, including tool use, domain (UML) understanding and peer-to-peer collaboration. Our findings indicate that agents can have an effect on collaboration by making users aware of collaboration patterns (division of labour, explicit roles, etc.) and by creating focus shifts in the users' interaction.