Engaging Collaborative Learners with Helping Agents

We present the results of a study in which we contrast alternative forms of collaborative learning support in the midst of a collaborative design task in which students negotiate between increasing power and increasing environmental friendliness. Our research question is whether interactive instructional support in collaborative learning environments is more effective when it is offered as solicited or unsolicited help. The finding from our classroom study is that dialogue-based support is more effective in this collaborative context when invitations for help in the form of pointer hints are offered automatically, but dialogue agents are only provided when the invitation is explicitly accepted.