Dialog-Based Online Argumentation: Findings from a Field Experiment

In this paper we report on the results of a field experiment where more than 300 participants used dialog-based online argumentation. The participants were computer science students discussing how to improve the computer science course of studies. At the beginning of the argumentation the participants were informed that the results would be carefully considered by the computer science department in order to revise the course of studies. Thus this was a real-world experiment and not an artificial lab setting. Over the course of two weeks the online argumentation received 255 user-submitted statements, leading to 235 arguments. After the argumentation was concluded we carefully analyzed the resulting content and asked the participants to answer a questionnaire. Our findings indicate that dialog-based online argumentation can result in a high-quality exchange of arguments without the need of anyone involved being an expert on formal argumentation. Furthermore we identified several areas where dialog-based online argumentation and our specific implementation could be improved significantly.