Thinking in Graphs with CoMAP: A Shared Visual Workspace for Designing Project-Based Learning

TL;DR

CoMAP introduces a graph-based shared visual workspace with AI support to enhance collaborative design in project-based learning, improving educators' creative processes and trust.

Contribution

It presents a novel nonlinear, artifact-centric collaboration system grounded in distributed cognition theories, with empirical evaluation showing significant benefits for educators.

Findings

CoMAP significantly improves teachers' design expression.

It enhances divergent thinking and iterative practice.

The system fosters trust and reduces cognitive load.

Abstract

Designing project-based learning (PBL) demands managing highly interdependent components, a task that both traditional linear tools and purely conversational AI struggle with. Traditional tools fail to capture the non-linear nature of creative design, while conversational systems lack the persistent, shared context necessary for reflective collaboration. Grounded in theories of distributed cognition, we introduce CoMAP, a system that embodies a graph-based collaboration paradigm. By providing a shared visual workspace with dual-modality AI support, CoMAP transforms the human-AI relationship from a prompt-and-response loop into a transparent and equitable partnership. Our study with 30 educators shows CoMAP significantly improves teachers' design expression, divergent thinking, and iterative practice compared to a dialogue-only baseline. These findings demonstrate how a nonlinear, artifact-centric approach can foster trust, reduce cognitive load, and \textcolor{fix}{support} educators to take control of their creative process. Our contributions are available at: https://comap2025.github.io/.