O3-A2: Groupformation tool – final report and manual
Milestone document (issued September 2020):
Essential parts of the competencies defined as Open Virtual Mobility include inter-cultural and interpersonal competencies. Thus, for the provided learning courses (MOOCs) on intermediate and advanced level, peer activities were designed, for which the participants need to be put into learning groups. This is not done manually, but by an optimization algorithm which is extended with a user-interface as a Moodle plugin, called mod_groupformation.
After a brief repetition about learning group formation theory, the requirements are listed and explained which are derived from earlier documents and the transnational partner meetings. Afterwards, the functionality of the plugin is explained from a user perspective referring back to the requirements. It will be explained in the document why a matching criterion based on country-of-origin is currently out of scope, even though it was desired (as non-critical) by partner organizations (see section 3.1 in this document for details). The functionality of the underlying GroupAL algorithm is described to make clear why, at certain deadlines, the group formation needs to take place (instead of continuously adding participants to groups). Finally, the installation process and requirements for proper use of the plugin are provided. The document closes with a conclusion.
Note: This document is a revised and updated version of the former publication O3.A2.3 Matching tool: Functional prototype of matching tool and O3-A2.4: Matching tool: Connected to VM Learning Hub.