Towards an electronic voting system in support for consensus in on-line learning discussions

Many e-learning tools have been widely used in online learning settings to support on-line classroom discussions. A typical discussion and reasoning process is based on three stages or types of generic contributions, namely specification, elaboration and consensus. While the two first stages are fully supported by current e-learning tools and systems, the consensus stage is usually neglected. To overcome this deficiency, in this paper we propose an electronic voting system to support on-line discussions and in particular the consensus stage as part of collaborative learning practices. For validation purposes we test a proof of concept of our application in order to validate the notion and nature of the EVS. The results show that our application enhances and improves the user´s experience in on-line discussions and during the consensus stage. Furthermore, it is shown that innovative uses of this application can meet new pedagogical needs in an e-learning context.