SGER: Affinity Learning Authoring Tools

University Of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln NE

Investigators

Abstract

The National Center for Information Technology in Education (NCITE) has developed the Affinity Learning System through a CCLI proof-of-concept grant. They report that it has proven to be a very effective educational research tool that has provided insight into student learning strategies and misconceptions. In order to build on this capability they need funding to substantially enhance and modify the programming. Such an effort will reveal if the tools can be fully implemented and if it will then serve to benefit research, inform educators and improve online education. The project objectives are to design and pilot-test an authoring interface that provides a graphical representation of lesson components and allows abstraction or information hiding to mitigate the complexity inherent in the Affinity Learning design process; and to overcome intrinsic challenges in lesson decomposition by investigating new conceptual approaches such as basing decomposition on the identification of student misconceptions. This grant allows the PIs to overcome technical barriers that, once accomplished, will allow development of education environments and research protocols to proceed. This opportunity exists now and must be completed before further development is possible.