On the Prospects of Intelligent Collaborative E-learning Systems

Collaborative learning is question-driven and open-ended by nature. Many of the techniques developed for intelligent tutoring are applicable only in more structured settings, but fortunately there are other interesting opportunities to explore. In this paper we introduce a system called OurWeb, and use it as an exemplar framework for demonstrating some of these opportunities. We claim that effective participation in distributed and self-organizing collaboration requires sufficient awareness of the resources and dynamics of the community. The feasibility of implementing certain features of this kind is evaluated based on data from two university level courses.