Gwo-Dong Chen and Kuo-Liang Ou National Central University

1. Using groups’ communication to detect the group roles and discover the group role influence on group learning performance Gwo-Dong Chen and Kuo-Liang Ou National Central University

2. outline • Introduction • Group roles • Methodology • Experience and Results • Conclusion

3. Introduction • The group members’ influence • As people are brought together, individual behaviors are influenced by members (Stott and Walker, 1995) • The group members’ interaction and influence must be managed (Sommerville and Dalziel, 1998)

4. Introduction • To deal with interaction and influence • Role theory was proposed and indicates the group role and its’ functionality (Belbin and Thomas, 1966)(Heap,1977) • Experience and methods are proposed to explore role influence (Henry and Steven, 1999 ; Sommerville and Dalziel, 1998) • These roles could be obtained by a questionnaires (Belbin, 1981) • However, on a web group learning environment, teachers need an on-line group role extractor and the influence explorer

5. Introduction • Research Goal • Extracting the roles of web group learning on-line by analyzing group interaction • Exploring the influence of group roles on learning performance

6. Introduction • Issues • Group interaction are non-organized, and the number of interactions is large • Group roles are hardly to be extracted from group interaction • Influences of group roles on learning performance are complex and hardly to be discovered

7. Introduction • Method • Text Miner : extract the interaction topics and abstracts for teachers categorizing the interaction • Classification : extracting the group roles by training data defined by teachers’ expert knowledge • Bayesian Belief Network : explore the role influence by causal network

8. Introduction • The indicators of learning performance • Group project grade • Resource sharing • Drop out rate

9. Group Roles • Group Roles (Benne and Sheats, 1948) • Group task roles • Group building and maintenance roles • Personal roles

10. Group Roles • Group task roles (heap, 1977) • Initiator-contributor • Information-seeker • Opinion-seeker • Information-giver • Opinion-giver • Elaborator • Coordinator • Orienter • Evaluator-critic • Energizer • Procedural technician

11. Group Roles • Group building and maintenance roles (heap, 1977) • Encourager • Harmonizer • Compromister • Gate-keeper and expediter • Standard-setter or ego ideal • Group-observer and commentator • follower

12. Group Roles • Personal roles (heap, 1977) • Aggressor • Blocker • Self-confessor • Playboy • Fence-mender • Cover-the cracks • Dominator • Fellow-traveler • Blue-nose • Trouble-maker • Cynical • One track-mind • Egocentric • Problem orientated

13. Methodology • IBM Intelligent Miner for text • Extracting the communication topics • Extracting the communication abstract • IBM Intelligent Miner for data : Classification • Teachers observe the communication topics and abstract • Classify some roles of students as the training data with expert domain knowledge • Remain students will be classified into roles by classifier • BKD (Bayesian Knowledge Discover)(Open University, UK)(Ramoni, and Sebastiani ,1997) • Explore the influence of group roles on learning performance and presents with Bayesian Belief Network

14. Attribute Name Group ID Deliver ID Receiver ID Date of Issue Subject Content Data Type Number Number Number Date Text Text Methodology • The Data Schema of Communication From : group 10 , 82556002 To : group 10, 82556004 Date : 2000,06,05 Subject : Could you give me some hint about chapter 4 Content : Dear Michelle, I am sorry to be late for the on-line conference of our group this morning. I have a question and need a favor from you. In the chapter 4, page 45, teachers have illustrated last week. Can you kindly tell me the purpose of a member function in an object in the object oriented programming language?

15. Categorizing Tool of Text Analysis Training Discussion in Category 1 Vocabulary of Category 1 Vocabulary of Category 2 Full Category Schema Training Discussion in Category 2 Categorization Filter Categorized Documents All the Discussion Documents Methodology

16. Category List Ranking Score Question for Chapter 1 0.421165 Question for Chapter 2 0.200785 Question for Chapter 3 0.212877 Question for Chapter 4 0.554322 Inquiry for system and environment 0.287286 Gossips discussion 0.336911 … … Experience and Results • Communication topics classification

17. Experience and Results • Communication abstract extracting what is the purpose of a member function in an object in object oriented programming language?

18. Group roles Accuracy of classification Initiator - contributor 92.5 Information - giver 95 Opinion - giver 97.5 coordinator 95 energizer 97.5 Procedural technician 60 encourager 97.5 harmonizer 77.5 Playboy 92.5 dominator 97.5 Fellow-traveler 97.5 Experience and Results • 11 group roles are detected

19. Group roles Accuracy of classification Initiator - contributor 0.000* Information - giver 0.000* Opinion - giver 0.185 coordinator 0.000* energizer 0.000* Procedural technician 0.011 encourager 0.000* harmonizer 0.018 Playboy 0.008* dominator 0.000* Fellow-traveler 0.003* Experience and Results • Significant of group roles influence on learning performance * p < 0.01

20. Experience and Results • Influence on group project grade

21. Experience and Results • Influence on resource sharing frequency

22. Experience and Results • Influence on drop out rate

23. Conclusion • Successfully organize and categorize the group communication by extracting topics and abstracts • Successfully detect 11 group roles by classifying group communications

24. Conclusion • Explore the influence of group roles on learning performance by Bayesian Belief Network • The initiator and dominator improve the group project grades • The procedure technician improve the resource sharing frequency but follow-traveler not • Both the playboy and follow-traveler have high probability to be dropped out before class end