Abstracts - Earli

Seeking and providing help in technology-based learning-by-doing situationsLisa-Marie Babin, France Telecom R&D, FranceAndre Tricot, CNRS & University of Toulouse, FranceClaudette Marine, CNRS & University of Toulouse, FranceGerard Poulain, France Telecom R&D, FranceThroughout their life, people are faced with learning situations, in particular when they need tolearn how to use new software, services, or information systems. However, learners needingassistance do not systematically seek or use help, even when it is available (Aleven et al., 2003).Thus, the aims of the present study were as follows: (1) identify the users’ need of assistanceduring a learning-by-doing task, in order to provide them with help when they come to a deadlock,(2) compare the nature of the provided help according to the users’ level of expertise, and (3)compare different helping scenarios (i.e., help is provided after a user’s request versus after adeadlock detected by the system). Firstly, the Tower of Hanoi task was used to characterize thesequences of actions corresponding to deadlocks, the nature of the assistance, and the moment forproposing assistance. Next, we designed help systems allowing users to learn how to use newmultimedia applications. The results showed that (1) even when participants had reached animpasse, most of them never sought assistance, (2) procedural type of help that was automaticallyprovided by the system (i.e., not requested by the users) was effective for novice users, and (3)non-procedural assistance that was automatically provided by the system was effective for expertusers. During the next phase of the study, our goal will be to analyze whether the lack ofspontaneous help seeking is due to a lack of awareness concerning the impasse or to a refusal(temporary or not) of assistance. The effect of "alarms" (i.e., the detection of an impasse by thesystem) on the users’ awareness concerning the deadlocks as well as on the users’ requests for helpwill be studied as a function of their expertise.Non effective computer-mediated help seeking: Implications for the design of help systemsMinna Puustinen, CNRS & University of Poitiers, FranceJosie Bernicot, CNRS & University of Poitiers, FranceSuccessful learning with educational ICT necessitates effective help systems. Our aim was tocontribute to that issue, by analysing non effective computer-mediated interactions betweenlearners and teachers. We used the archives of a French forum providing students withindividualised help in mathematics. Students may go to the forum whenever they feel it isnecessary and type their messages online or else send their messages via email. Voluntarysecondary school mathematics teachers answer the students’ messages seven days per week. Ourdata consisted of cases (N=160) in which the students (mainly upper secondary school students),who had already formulated a request and received a teacher’s initial answer, returned to theforum. We considered that in those cases, the initial help-seeking interaction had not beeneffective enough in terms of the learning outcomes. The analyses showed, for example, that thestudents who returned to the forum typically did so either to formulate another request concerningthe same piece of homework or to provide the teachers with supplementary information theyneeded to be able to answer the students’ questions properly. In fact, the teachers were not alwaysable to answer the students’ messages due to lacking or insufficient information concerning thestudents’ exercises or identity, for example. Finally, we conducted a more detailed qualitativeanalysis of the cases in which the students returned to the forum in order to formulate anotherrequest concerning the same piece of homework. The implications of our findings for the design ofhelp systems will be discussed in the light of previous research on student help seeking.– 384 –