Understanding level estimation using discussion maps for supporting consensus-building

Problem-based learning (PBL), which is a learning method in small collaborative groups to learn what they need to know in order to solve a problem, is the more recent and highly regarded. For meaningful discussions about in a PBL situation, it is important to support and manage a conversation among participants. In this paper, we propose a consensus-building and management system using tablet terminals for an effective discussion. In our system, each participant generates a discussion map which consists of nodes and links between them about the discussion. Our system computes a correspondence measure between discussion maps of each participant, understands the state of the discussion and supports the consensus-building. We validate the effectiveness of the system using the discussion map experimentally. (C) 2014 Published by Elsevier B. V.