Communication and Collaboration Towards Problem Solving : Evaluation of PILS

In most e-learning scenarios the effective and efficient communication between teachers and students as well as among students is essential for the learning progress of the students. Support for mutual online presence information and spontaneous online communication has the potential to facilitate that. However, such support also entails challenges when too many disruptions occur and hinder the learning progress. This paper tackles the first step of the issue of adding collaboration to an adaptive learning environment. The EU project Adaptive Learning Spaces (ALS) has the vision of joining regular Learning Management Systems with adaptation and cooperation support. This paper introduces the ALS overall vision and the Presence in Learning Spaces (PILS) instant messaging support. Moreover, it reports on the results of the base study that is to be compared later on with the adaptive collaboration support.