DEFINING AGENT SYSTEM FOR KNOWLEDGE ACQUISITION IN PBL DISCUSSIONS

Abstract

We develop an algorithm for an agent system, namely MALESAbrain, to help educators acquire students’ learning knowledge in a problem-based learning discussion. The principles of the PBL discipline and the advantages of using PBL pedagogy are explored. In developing the PBL support tools, existing chat room and forum technologies are adopted to support the PBL discussions that are used in our study. On the downside, the authors found that without a chairperson or a tutor present in the chat room, the discussion becomes inefficient and ineffective. Consequently, our study defines the PBL functions for the chairperson and tutor agents. The authors then formulate the mathematical description for the agent which is translated into an algorithm for MALESAbrain.