Research Initiation Grant: Student-directed differentiated learning in college-level engineering education

George Mason University, Fairfax VA

Investigators

Abstract

Differentiated learning, i.e. adjusting educational material delivery according to the strengths and weaknesses of each student, has gained traction in K-12 education, but not in higher education. Part of the reason is the significant workload imposed on the instructor, who needs to design material delivery on an individual basis. While this is reasonable for younger children, higher education students are adults that need to take charge of their own educational pathway, especially in view of the need for them to sustain life-long education efforts. In this study, we investigate tools and methodologies that support students into choosing their own individualized study plan, including frequent feedback though formative homework assignments, homeworks that offer options at different levels of challenge, and online reference video libraries. This aims at providing additional support to students with lower readiness levels, while still offering challenging tasks to students with stronger backgrounds. We expect this approach to help increase retention and success rates for students of varied educational background and possibly socio-economic status, while at the same time providing a more stimulating experience for students with higher readiness levels. While the proposed research is mainly directed towards a traditional classroom-based course, the student-driven approach adopted makes it relevant to environments where there is a need for student-initiated instruction plan choices, such as MOOCs and life-long learning. The aim of this project it twofold. First, we intend to develop techniques for creating a framework for student-directed differentiated instruction material for adult learners. For this part, we investigate a general framework of combined formative assignments, tiered homeworks and a tiered reference video library. Elements of this plan include formative assessment, which provides information on student readiness levels in order to help with subsequent decisions; tiered homework menus to help students practice and develop skills at the level they perceive as most appropriate; and a library of online video material aimed at creating customized recitation sessions based at what students think they need most help with. Our interest is both on how to optimally develop these tools, and how to combine them within course design. Second, we investigate the factors that influence student decisions when creating an individualized study plan within this framework. The main focus of this research is to analyze how engineering students use information from the formative assessment together with their perception of their readiness level in order to make choices, and how this affects their overall learning experience and its outcomes.