Assessing, Improving, and Guiding Users to NSDL Resources

Massachusetts Institute Of Technology, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

This project is designing tools for mining and analyzing data produced via student use of the LON-CAPA homework and learning management system. The tools are improving the ability of the system to respond to individual user (student, instructor, and author) needs. New tools are being developed, implemented, and tested in a Newtonian Mechanics course at MIT, and fully developed tools are being integrated into the production version of LON-CAPA, where they are available to all users. The tools are housed in an open-source system, allowing easy adoption and refinement. Specifically, the project is producing tools that gather and analyze information on difficulty, time, and discrimination of assessment items; analyze user data to help improve assessment items; provide a user-ranked asset window that provides resources in order of utility based on past use and solicits students to suggest new resources; and provide information to authors and instructors about which FAQs and comments students select, allowing identification of items that are most useful to student learning. This project is providing the potential to monitor individual and class performance reliably, to guide instruction effectively, and to dramatically enhance the effectiveness of individual instructional and assessment items. In particular, the tools may lead to customized tutoring by recommending optimal item-by-item instructional paths to individual learners.