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Figure 5: Example of learners’ activities.
This example shows how the group 1 solved the problem on the energy level.
The uppermost line in the table shows the whiteboard number used and the
following three lines are colored, respectively, when avatars A, B, C did a chat.
The numbers on the top of the table mean the elapsed time of discussion. The
figures above the table are showing the change of contents on the whiteboard.
The charts below the table show the important parts extracted from the
conversations in the picked-up period.
Students shared the notion of energy level and its relation to the electron spin.
We can observe how avatar B, behaving as a leader, explained them to avatar
A and avatar C. Responding to avatar B, avatar A said “I can understand,”
and avatar C said “it is difficult to understand.” The table in figure 5 starts
when avatar C said “it is difficult.” Answering avatar C, avatar B declared “I
will explain it using whiteboard” and explained his idea using the chart. In
the process avatar A also got engaged in the explanation and avatar C asked
questions to avatars A and B. We could judge that they started having smooth
communication. We can observe that avatar C also understood the subject
from the analysis of the chat. By contrast, the group 2 did not have a leader, and
there was an avatar who could not follow the discussion on the same problem
that was given to the group 1. The conversation among the members of the
group 2 was sparse and the number of sentences in it is just a half of the group
1. We also point out that the contents described on the shared whiteboard were
not clear. From these facts, we can conclude that to promote students’ learning,
it is not sufficient just to prepare the discussion environment in mother tongue
– an avatar acting as a leader or a mentor is also needed.