#726: Idea Tracing Analysis (ITA): A Temporal-Structural Methodology for Modeling Collaborative Discourse and Contextualizing Multimodal Interactions

Understanding learners’ behaviors in collaborative problem solving (CPS) is critical yet challenging due to its dynamic, multimodal nature. We introduce Idea Tracing Analysis (ITA), a method that models collaborative discourse as the evolution of interconnected ideas. ITA represents interactions as temporally aligned idea networks, capturing how ideas emerge, transform, and connect across participants. This approach provides a temporal and structural lens on collaboration, enabling analysis of group-level knowledge-building trajectories and the contextualization of multimodal interactions.