Science and Information Conference 2015 July 28-30, 2015 | London, UK 395 | Page www.conference.thesai.org Fuzzy Assessment Model for Operative Groups in Virtual Educational Forums Ilan Chamovitz Manchester Business School The Manchester University Manchester, United Kingdom ilan@api.adm.br Marcos da Fonseca Elia Instituto Tércio Pacitti de Aplicações e Pesquisas Computacionais, UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil melia@nce.ufrj.br Carlos Alberto Nunes Cosenza LAB FUZZY - Laboratório de Lógica Fuzzy, UFRJ Rio de Janeiro, Brazil contato@labfuzzy.coppe.ufrj.br Abstract—This research consisted in applying the Fuzzy COPPE-Cosenza Hierarchy Model to assess student’s and group’s performance, using virtual discussion forum to achieve an educational task. The work brings up concepts from Pichon- Rivière’s Operative Groups technique. It uses the software CQMsg - Messages Classifier and Qualifier for messages assessment and it applies, for the first time in education, COPPE- Cosenza Fuzzy Hierarchy Model, which has been successful in other areas. After analysis, results suggest that COPPE-Cosenza Fuzzy Hierarchy Model may support formative assessment for educational operative groups using a virtual discussion forum. Keywords—forum; fuzzy; assessment; educational; Brazil I. INTRODUCTION Student’s performance assessment is an essential process for graduate courses, specially using a virtual platform that supports task oriented activities, enables analysis and improve educational processes. Given its complexity, uncertain, vague and nebulous character, assessment continues to challenge educators and researchers, who propose new methods and also the use of technology, seeking efficiency and effectiveness of processes. Several distance education courses have messages stored in educational forums. To help on students’ performance evaluation, virtual environment can be accessed and assessed by the educator according to previously established criteria, during or after the course. However, it is important to remember that this evaluation process must be contextualized, aligned to educational planning, and that the educator must be aware that will be held shrouded in complexity [1]. Furthermore, text analysis leads to a large load of interpretation and subjectivity [2], often with vagueness and uncertainty. Fuzzy models have been used in decision making to assist in solving complex problems and making the use of judgment. Zadeh [3] introduced Fuzzy Sets as “a class of objects with a continuum of grades of membership”, to fill the existent gap for ambiguity that arises for classification. Zadeh exemplifies this gap with controversial statements such defining some type of bacteria as “animal” or indicating an individual as a “tall man”. Created in the 70s, from locational research studies, Model COPPE-Cosenza has been used in Architecture [4], Medicine [5][6], Civil Engineering [7], Business Administration [8],[9],[10], Regional Planning and Development [11], Production Engineering [12]. However, until 2008 there was not any proposal for Hierarchy Fuzzy COPPE-Cosenza Model application in Educational Assessment area. Chamovitz, Elia and Cosenza proposed its application [13],[14] and, in 2010, a doctorate thesis had been presented with four study cases based on the model [15]. From 2010 to 2013 the model continued to be applied in other fields of Engineering [16],[17],[18], [19], [20], [21], [22]. Virtual educational forums analysis considers, among other things: forum’s objectives, messages’ quantity and quality, the number of participants, interaction’s amount and quality, moderator’s behaviour. Educational discussion forums have been used by educators inside and outside the classroom. During or after the debates completion, messages resulting from an educational forum can be analysed and student’s participation can be measured quantitatively and qualitatively. This work relies on a model based on the use of fuzzy logic and Operative Groups proposed by Pichon Rivière [23], a task- oriented technique that is applied in Health and Education. It aims changing concepts of state behaviour. That is, learning. The study serves as a starting point for several areas that are related to assessment and decision making, such as Production Engineering, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Psychology, Education and Health. In the future, the proposed model application may assist educators to use forums for Education. II. METHODOLOGY The study was initially ruled in literature. There was also participation from the 1st author in lectures from Production Engineering Program, firstly as a student and later as a monitor, assisting other students. Case study data collection was done through a Web application software developed by members of the research staff: a Learning Management System (LMS) [24] and the Messages Classifier-Qualifier – CQMsg [25] to access and assess the messages. The research relies on graduate students’ participation, lecturers and ICT in Education experts. The research question focused on the use of fuzzy logic and the fuzzy COPPE-Cosenza model to assist the teacher in assessing students’ activities based on task. Matrices and fuzzy rules that comprise the model were defined from the initial studies and the model was applied in four cases. All cases consisted in graduate students debating using online forums This research was partially sponsored by The Ministry of Health, Brazil.