Duration: M0 - M7
Project leader: AUP
Other participants: INSEAD, UTA, OBU, Ontdeknet, CELN, STC, Cantoche

Objectives

The objective of this WP is to elaborate a comprehensive conceptual framework for the active and intelligent (agent-based or not) support for attention in a collaborative learning setting.

After assessing the partners’ and the state of the art knowledge on the subject (including its level of maturity / risks associated), we will concentrate on identifying user needs and establishing the requirements for supporting attention in collaborative learning environments. In particular four stages of support will be considered: (1) Detecting current user’s attentional state, (2) Determining possible alternative foci, (3) Evaluating cost/benefits of possible user’s attentional shifts, (4) Establishing modalities for interventions. This will result in a simple and task-focused conceptual model encompassing the concepts the system should address and possibly expose to users, their attributes, operations, and relations to tasks in several domains This WP will supply input to the formative evaluation task of WP4 for the creation of high level evaluation scenarios. The results of the preliminary user’s feedbacks generated in WP4 will inform T1.3 below.

Description of work

• T1.1: Partners’ workshop. The aim is to fully articulate and organize partners’ knowledge, expertise, and assets related to the domain of the project; as well as discussing and clarifying preliminary concepts and ideas.
• T1.2: State of the art assessment (including relevant aspects of: cognitive and social theories of human attention, attention aware systems, interface characters in collaborative contexts, cognitive architectures, adaptive systems)
• T1.3: Elaboration of a conceptual framework for attention management in a collaborative learning contexts (needs and requirements for assessing, evaluating, and guiding attention in collaborative learning contexts; scenario development; methods and approaches for populating / authoring learning materials for an attentive platform; definition of concepts, tasks, relations, and objects addressing those needs and requirements)

Milestones and expected result

• M1.1 State of the art completed – M04
• M1.2 Conceptual Framework – M06

The availability of the conceptual framework (due in M08, but first version in M06) will provide the foundation for all the other part of the project (including the design, the evaluation and the exploitation).