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The use of technology as a facilitator in learning environments has become increasingly prevalent with the global pandemic caused by COVID-19. As such, computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) gains a wider adoption in contrast to traditional learning methods. At the same time, the need for automated tools capable of assessing and stimulating collaboration between participants has become more stringent, as human monitoring of the increasing volume of conversations becomes overwhelming. This paper introduces a method grounded in dialogism for evaluating students' involvement in chat conversations based on semantic chains computed using language models. These semantic chains reflect emergent voices from dialogism that span and interact throughout the conversation. Our integrated method uses contextual information captured by BERT transformer models to identify links in a chain that connects semantically related concepts from a voice uttered by one or more participants. Two types of visualizations were generated to depict the longitudinal propagation and the transversal inter-animation of voices within the conversation. In addition, a list of handcrafted features derived from the constructed chains and computed for each participant is introduced. Several machine learning algorithms were tested using these features to evaluate the extent to which semantic chains are predictive of student involvement in chat conversations. [This paper was published in: "Ludic, Co-design and Tools Supporting Smart Learning Ecosystems and Smart Education, Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Smart Learning Ecosystems and Regional Development," edited by Ó. Mealha et al., Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd., 2022, pp. 67-78.]

1Boy Crusoe

By Allan Eric

Also published as" A Yankee Crusoe" . A 15 year old hard working and studious farm boy finds the lure of adventure on the seas as a merchant seaman more than he can resist. This is his story. " I was born in a little town in the State of Maine, near the close of the Civil War. My boyhood life did not differ materially from that of the average farmer's son in the remote country districts of New England--except, perhaps, that I read more and thought more. Hard work on the rugged soil, two terms each year in the little yellow country schoolhouse, a day's fishing now and then filled the early years of my life full to over-flowing. " What he gets is enough excitement and adventure to overflow his wildest dreams. How he experiences disaster and uses his wits and knowledge to overcome every problem makes for a great read. - Summary by Phil Chenevert