Tools and evaluation methods for discussion and presentation skills training

Abstract

Our university is currently developing an advanced physical-digital learning environment that can train students to enhance their discussion and presentation skills. The environment guarantees an efficient discussion among users with state-of-the-art technologies such as touch panel discussion tables, digital posters, and an interactive wall-sized whiteboard. It includes a data mining system that efficiently records, summarizes, and annotates discussions held inside our facility. We also developed a digital poster authoring tool, a novel tool for creating interactive digital posters displayed using our digital poster presentation system. Evaluation results show the efficiency of using our facilities: the data mining system and the digital poster authoring tool. In addition, our physical-digital learning environment will be further enhanced with a vision system that will detect interactions with the digital poster presentation system and the different discussion tools enabling a more automated skill evaluation and discussion mining.