PRE2017 3 Groep8: Difference between revisions

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= Final report =
The final deliverable the group set out to make is a report that details our findings on the application of flow theory in education, and recommendations for applying this knowledge in a prototype, as well as discussing our findings regarding challenges and good practices in online learning systems, and recommendations for applying these findings in a prototype.
The report can be found [https://drive.google.com/open?id=1N7tYuIwq_C7X7KM7T8QwQJPyHf6TK2Pg here].
A copy of the report was also sent as an attachment in the email that contains the peer reviews.
= Final presentation =
The final presentation that was given on 26-03-2018 can be found [https://drive.google.com/open?id=1th4KYs4PsqXY7poa6pqoZHG-BN6GNcJA6NPJ6Ic0qm4 here].
The demonstration video that was shown at the end of the presentation can be found [https://drive.google.com/open?id=1rN5agtwZBXNOpIXgJdJgj2GjfsZ5r7Xu here].
= Important Links =
= Important Links =
* [https://drive.google.com/open?id=1R1sTspkcFJ8JQQcSQkM0zQKlx5QQmO87hnEcMnZy6CI Planning]
* [https://drive.google.com/open?id=1R1sTspkcFJ8JQQcSQkM0zQKlx5QQmO87hnEcMnZy6CI Planning]
* [https://drive.google.com/open?id=1YQaO3pJxC3kb2OmUTZ6K-si01ehI-J8v Google Drive folder] (read only)
* [https://drive.google.com/open?id=1YQaO3pJxC3kb2OmUTZ6K-si01ehI-J8v Google Drive folder] (read only)
* [[Coaching Questions Group 8]]
* [[Coaching Questions Group 8]]


= Information about ideation =
= Information about ideation =
=== Problem Statement and objectives ===
=== Problem Statement and objectives ===
The Netherlands is currently dealing with a shortage of teachers in both primary and secondary education. In secondary education, the shortages are most prevalent in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) field. The shortage of teachers is likely to persevere due to a decrease in the popularity of pursuing a teaching career caused by the low salaries and high workload of the job (Kan & van Eekelen, 2017).
Online learning refers to methods of learning that employ online educational technologies. The University of Phoenix was the first to employ online learning in 1989. Since that time, the popularity of online learning systems has greatly increased. In the school year 2013-2014, 75% percent of all United States district offered online or blended courses for K-12 students (Connections Academy, n.d.).
 
The Netherlands is not the only country dealing with teacher shortages, the United Kingdom and the United states are coping with the same issues. In the United Kingdom there is an increase in the number of teachers leaving the profession for non-retirement reasons, as well as an increase in the number of secondary school pupils that is expected to last until 2025 (Syal, 2018). In the United States drastic strategies, including hiring teachers with no formal training, are being employed to try to fill the gaps caused by the teacher shortages (Papay, Bacher-Hicks, Page & Marinell, 2018).
Even though online learning systems are used by many students, there are still challenges regarding these learning methods. Challenges in online learning include keeping students motivated, increasing efficiency of learning and providing insights into learning points for students.
 
In order to decrease the workload of teachers, and maybe even decrease the need for teachers, we will review the possibilities of applying flow theory in education. Apart from reviewing the possibilities, we will also model an assistant that can aid in improving the rate at which students learn new material. The assistant that we will model will focus on teaching elementary school and high school mathematics.
 
The objectives of this project are:
The objectives of this project are:
* To gain insight into the current state of robotics in education.
* To evaluate the current challenges in online learning.
* To gain insight into the possibilities of robotics in education in the coming 10 years.
* To evaluate the factors influencing the adoption of online learning systems.
* To evaluate the ethical aspects of the use of robotics in education.
* To evaluate the current approaches to online learning.
* To develop a teaching assistant/learning system that can apply the knowledge acquired concerning teaching methods in a learning system for 1st- to 3rd-grade students.
* To evaluate the effects of different learning styles on learning.
* To make effective use of the seven principles of good practice in education in the learning system.
* To develop an online learning system that applies the knowledge acquired from the previous four objectives.  


=== Who are the users? ===
=== Who are the users? ===
The robotics technology which we will research focuses on improving the quality of education, as such the primary users who will interact with such a system are elementary and highschool students. The personalised learning assistant which we propose will gather data regarding the performance of students in order to personalise their curriculum. Considering this system will be a new facet of education, it will have to be integrated in the existing logistics of schools. For instance, teachers should be able to review the performance of students.
Our research focuses on improving the quality of online education, where the focus will be on creating an online learning system that can be used by middle-/high-school students. The online learning system that we propose will gather data regarding the performance of students in order to personalise their learning experience. Considering this system will be a part of an existing education system, it will have to be integrated in the existing logistics of schools. For instance, teachers should be able to review the performance of students.


=== What are the user requirements? ===
=== What are the user requirements? ===
For the students it is important that the level of questions is at the correct level for them. If the questions are too easy they will get bored and if the questions are too difficult they will get demotivated.
For the students it is important that the difficulty of questions is at the correct level for them. If the questions are too easy they will get bored and if the questions are too difficult they will get demotivated.


For the teachers it is important to have insights into the results of their students so that they can judge the progress of their students.
For the teachers it is important to have insights into the results of their students so that they can judge the progress of their students.
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Both for teachers and students it is important that the user interface of the assistant is clear. For students it needs to be clear what they are expected to do, and feedback needs to be provided when they submit a wrong answer. For teachers it should be easy to judge the progress of their students.
Both for teachers and students it is important that the user interface of the assistant is clear. For students it needs to be clear what they are expected to do, and feedback needs to be provided when they submit a wrong answer. For teachers it should be easy to judge the progress of their students.


The most important requirement for the management of a school is that the assistant can be integrated into the current style of education that is provided at the school. This means that the assistant should be highly adaptive so that it can be adjusted to the specific needs of the specific schools it is implemented in.
The most important requirement for the management of a school is that the online learning system can be integrated into the current style of education that is provided at the school. This means that the online learning system should be highly adaptive so that it can be adjusted to the specific needs of the specific schools it is implemented in.


=== Approach, milestones and deliverables ===
=== Approach, milestones and deliverables ===
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The team sets out to create three deliverables:
The team sets out to create three deliverables:
* A report detailing our findings on the application of flow theory in education, and recommendations for applying this knowledge in new services and devices.
* A working prototype; an online learning system which enables personalised learning.
* A working prototype; a personal assistant or learning system which enables personalised learning.
* A report detailing:
** Our findings on the application of flow theory in education, and recommendations for applying this knowledge in the prototype.
** Our findings regarding challenges and good practices in online learning systems, and recommendations for applying these findings in the prototype.
* A presentation in which the aforementioned report is discussed and the prototype is presented.
* A presentation in which the aforementioned report is discussed and the prototype is presented.


=== Who does what? ===
=== Who does what? ===
In general group 8 works in a shared google drive folder (see important links). Our planning is specified in a seperate file in the google drive folder. This [https://drive.google.com/open?id=1R1sTspkcFJ8JQQcSQkM0zQKlx5QQmO87hnEcMnZy6CI planning] document specifies for each task who is responsible and the required timeframe in which the tasks need to be completed. The are also some reoccurring tasks that are assigned to a group member. Please note that this wiki will be updated weekly to reflect the final state of the google drive folder 18 hours before the weekly meeting.
In general group 8 works in a shared google drive folder (see important links). Our planning is specified in a seperate file in the google drive folder. This [https://drive.google.com/open?id=1R1sTspkcFJ8JQQcSQkM0zQKlx5QQmO87hnEcMnZy6CI planning] document specifies for each task who is responsible and the required timeframe in which the tasks need to be completed. The are also some reoccurring tasks that are assigned to a group member. Please note that this wiki will be updated weekly to reflect the final state of the google drive folder 18 hours before the weekly meeting.
* E-mail (responsible for e-mail contact with lecturers): Wouter
* E-mail (responsible for e-mail contact with lecturers and schools): Wouter
* Wiki updater (responsible for updating the wiki on time): Mitchell  
* Wiki updater (responsible for updating the wiki on time): Mitchell  
* Secretary (responsible for taking notes of feedback sessions): Nikki
* Secretary (responsible for taking notes of feedback sessions): Nikki


=== References ===
=== References ===
# Kan, A.R. & Eekelen, I. van (2017, November 29). Lerarentekort urgenter dan ooit [Shortage of teachers more urgent than ever]. NRC. Retrieved from https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2017/11/30/lerarentekort-urgenter-dan-ooit-a1583070
# Connections Academy. (n.d.) “Infographic: Growth of K-12 Digital Learning.” Growth of K-12 Online Education Infographic, https://www.connectionsacademy.com/news/growth-of-k-12-online-education-infographic.
# Papay, J.P., Bacher-Hicks, A., Page, L.C., Marinell, W.H. (2018, January 9) America’s teacher shortage can’t be solved by hiring more unqualified teachers. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2018/01/09/americas-teacher-shortage-cant-be-solved-by-hiring-more-unqualified-teachers/?utm_term=.7ec98bd8787e
 
# Syal, R. (2018, January 30). Teacher shortage leaves English schools in crisis, watchdog says. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/jan/31/teacher-shortage-leaves-english-schools-in-crisis-watchdog-says
 
= USE aspects =
=== User ===
The system has two primary groups of users: the students and the teachers. This system can be very desirable for the teacher as it can give detailed insight into the performance of students. Using this information the teacher can figure out more easily what topics he should focus on more in lectures, and which students should receive more attention regarding questions about the course material. The system can also be very desirable for students, as it can help with learning how to deal with course material; e.g. how they should plan their homework and make the most efficient use of their available time to learn as much as possible. Furthermore, because the system uses flow theory education may become less boring and more engaging to students. This in turn may motivate them to strive to complete more difficult education programs. To summarize, when it comes to user aspects of the system, it can make education more personal and better adjusted to the needs of the students.
=== Society ===
As was discussed in the section on user aspects of the technology, the main benefits of the system entail that high school education can become more personalized to the needs of the students. If the system succeeds in making education less boring and more engaging it might be possible that more students are able to come by in higher forms of education. As such the general level of education in society may increase, which is beneficial in a highly automated information society.
=== Enterprise ===
The system can have large implications on the enterprise regarding education. If the system is used by many schools, then the media companies that write text books may very well adapt course material to be more compatible with this system. Schools, as an enterprise, need to adapt their infrastructure such that the system can run in tandem with the school’s remaining digital infrastructure, as such schools will have to invest time and money in integrating the system into their infrastructure. It depends on a school to school basis whether or not the system will be put to use, some schools might find the costs for setting up the system too much compared to the increase in student performance that the system can deliver. Third party companies might step in and host the services that the system requires, such that it becomes easier and/or cheaper for schools to start using it, as they no longer have to host the service themselves.
 


= SotA: Summary of literature study =
= SotA: Summary of literature study =
We conducted a literature study in order to gain a better understanding of concepts relevant to our problem statement. We identified several topics which we deemed interesting. The [[PRE2017 3 Group8 SOTA|summary of the literature study]] focusses on six distinct topics.
= Impact of Literature Study =
Based on the [[PRE2017 3 Group8 SOTA|literature study]] that has been done, several items have been deemed important to include in our design. The impact of each of the topics which we researched is described below.
=== Flow Theory ===
Wesson and Boniwell (2007) describe seven conditions for getting in the flow. The following items are deemed important to include in the design of our learning assistant:
* Balancing challenge and skill: for our system this means that the level of the questions will be adapted to each individual’s capabilities with regard to certain topics.
* Having clear goals: for our system this means that a clear goal needs to be stated that a student can work towards by working with the system. For instance, for mathematics homework a goal could be to be able to apply the concepts taught in a certain chapter of the mathematics book that they use.
* Receiving clear and immediate feedback: for our system this implies that the student should be able to read their feedback immediately after answering the question. In an ideal system this feedback would also be adapted to the answer that the students has provided.
All three of these items are conditions for people to get ‘in flow’, enabling them to focus better on tasks and perform better.
=== Education by Human Teachers ===
Moran and Malott (2004) describe two important teaching models, the Direct Instruction (DI) teaching model and the Precision Teaching (PT) model. Both of these teaching models, as well as combinations of the two, have been shown to have a positive effect on the learning process, which is why we aim to include items from both models in our system.


We conducted a literature study in order to gain a better understanding of concepts relevant to our problem statement. We identified several topics which we deemed interesting. This summary of the literature study focussess on five distinct topics.
The DI teaching model focuses on the importance of repetition and continuous practice of topics. Based on this teaching model we propose that our system should not entirely omit questions on topics that students scored well in in the past, instead it should ask questions on these topics that match the students level.


=== Flow theory and education ===
The PT teaching model allows students to reflect on their own work. Based on precision theory we propose to allow students to indicate the level they think they are at regarding a specific topic. The level indicated by the student will be taken into account by the system to select the initial difficulty of questions. The difficulty will still be adapted as a result of the student’s performance.
Karen Wesson & Ilona Boniwell (2007) describe flow in the following way: Being ‘in flow’ or ‘in the zone’ enables individuals to focus on tasks more fully and to maximise performance . They describe conditions that should be met to get people in flow as well as ways to meet these in the context of coaching. Their list of conditions is as follows.
Also, the 'Standard Celeration Charts' that PT uses can be a good way to output the results of the students to allow for easy comparison by the teacher.


# Having clear goals
=== Learning Styles ===
# Balancing challenge and skill
During our research into learning styles we found that much of the research did not lead to conclusive results, and that there is a lack of evidence for the effectiveness of learning style models. This is why we will not adapt our system to the learning style of students.
# Importance placed on doing well in an activity
Research has indicated, however, that the teaching style should match with the topics that one is trying to teach.
# maintaining goal congruence
# Receiving clear and immediate feedback
# Increasing autonomy
# Increasing absorption


Sheehan & Katz (2012) apply flow theory to physical education. They mention Csikszentmihalyi’s (1975) eight elements which they describe as follows:
=== Gamification ===
# Balance between the difficulty of an activity and an individual’s proficiency. Is there an achievable perceived challenge?
As Nicholson (2015) describes, reward based gamification (akin to operant conditioning) can lead to short term improvements, but different game-elements should be used to facilitate long term improvement. Gamification should also not be permanent.  
# Apparent goals. Is there a clear objective that distinguishes pertinent from immaterial information?
# Immediate feedback. Is there personalized feedback being received in a timely manner?
# The harmony of action and awareness. Is there awareness of what’s happening without thinking about the need for this awareness?
# Focused concentration. Is the person able to concentrate on a limited stimulus field?
# Decreased self- consciousness. Is there awareness of internal processes and less emphasis on one’s self image (while maintaining a sense of their physical reality)?
# Perception of Control. Is the person capable of adequately achieving the prescribed task and less concerned about perfection?
# Decreased awareness of time. Is there a feeling that the importance of time is diminished (losing track of time)


Rodríguez-Ardura and Meseguer-Artola (2017) analysed the way flow relates to other constructs such as challenge and Control in the context of e-learning, this is done using a questionnaire distributed among the students of an established pure-online University. This analysis could teach us both what is needed to achieve flow as well as what the benefits to achieving flow are.
For our system this means that when the student starts with a course, reward based gamification can be applied. As the student masters the easy level of homework we need to give them more freedom and enable them to find intrinsic value in the subject material. It is at this point that we make the gamification less reward-based (sparser points, less emphasis on level, etc.) but move on to meaningful gamification (using Nicholson’s RECIPE; Play, Exposition, Choice, Information, Engagement, Reflection). Eventually (when the student has found intrinsic value in the course material and is adequate at the topics presented in the course) the student will find that the gamification elements no longer add to the learning process of this course. As such we need to ease the student into homework that is no longer gamified. We could ask the student what they felt about their last homework session, and use that information, combined with their performance metrics to find out what kind of gamification we need to apply for the next homework session.


Ghan & Deshpande (1994) propose a model to examine the optimal flow in human-computer interaction, this could tell us which aspects are more important for reaching optimal flow. This paper also studies the impact of task scope which is the motivating potential of a job. It is noteworthy that this paper is from a time where human-computer interaction was relatively new.
Using the work of Huang et al. It becomes important to thoroughly define the following constructs in order to guide the design of the system:
* Understanding target audience and context. This will change depending on the type of school that the system is designed for (for instance high school or elementary school, or a school for special needs students), another important factor for defining the context entails the study program. All in all the team should look thoroughly in order to understand the target audience and context of use as good as possible.  
* Defining learning objectives (this will change on a course to course basis)
* Structuring the experience. Regarding learning, the experience could be structured based on the topics discussed during the course, as well as the difficulty level of subtopics.
* Identifying resources
* The application of gamification elements can follow based on Nicholson's work (2015).


=== Education by human teachers ===
From the work of Arnold (2014) we find that it is beneficial to figure out what type of gamer the user is. Not all gamer categories like the same game elements, therefore not all types of gamification may be appreciated by the user. We could for instance ask the user when they make their profile what types of games they like to play and why they like to play them, and determine a gamer type based on that information.
A large-scale initiative to develop more efficient teaching methods in the USA called Follow Through resulted in the development of the Direct Instruction (DI) teaching model, as well as a monitoring method called Precision Teaching (PT) (Moran & Malott, 2004).


DI aims to improve learning outcomes by increasing clarity in the learning process (Kider & Carnine, 1991). On top of that, DI’s strongest focus is on repetition and continuous practice. At the beginning of the program, students are tested to determine their current skill level, and are then placed in groups of students with the same skill level. Only 10% of each lesson is new material, the rest is repetition and practice of previous study material (National Institute for Direct Instruction (2018).
=== Online Learning Systems ===
The research of Chickering et al. (1987) gives good insight into practices that an online learning system should follow. When applied to intelligent adaptive online learning systems, the practices could be implemented like this:


In PT, the teacher has more of a guiding role and the students reflect on themselves more (Lindsley, 1992). The learning curve is monitored using a so-called Standard Celeration Chart (SCC), which allows comparison of the learning curve of different students for the same task, or comparison of different tasks for the same student. This is thanks to the standard format for the SCC, in addition to the logarithmic scale which allows many numbers to be compared in their own order of magnitude (FHSS Information Architect, 2017).  
* Maintain contact between the student and the faculty. This means that the online learning system should be a part of the education process, not a replacement for face-to-face teaching. Lectures and question hours need to be maintained next to the online system. One way to enhance this functionality would be to allow students to ask questions to the teachers, or make a suggestion that  a topic receives extra attention in the next lecture. Using these techniques (as well as feedback on assignment performance) the bar is lowered for shy students or students that have difficulty in communicating to interact with their faculty.
Both methods have given promising results, also on long term after following regular teaching for several years (Becker & Gersten, 1982)(Gersten, Keating & Becker, 1988). The combination of the two has also been shown to have a positive effect on the learning process (Binder & Watkins, 1990).  
* In order to facilitate active learning, the system should be able to produce and handle questions of varying nature. This could be facilitated by implementing projects (larger assignments that students optionally tackle in groups) or peer critiques.
* The system can facilitate good feedback if it is able to quickly and accurately give feedback regarding the performance of the student. The system should not only indicate that the answer was wrong, but it also has to indicate where exactly issues pop up in the answers of the student. By using these performance metrics teachers can adapt the course, in which case changes to the course can also be considered feedback.
* The system facilitates time management by adaptively choosing which homework is suitable for a student. Instead of working endlessly on easy exercises and not having enough time to work on the most difficult ones, the system ensures that students spend their time well. For elementary and high school students it may be beneficial to let the system help the student in planning when they need to work on their homework.
* The performance data gathered by the system can help the education program make extra efforts to help students progress through the course material. The system can communicate expectations that the school has by setting up milestones that students have to fulfill.
* The system should communicate clear guidelines for participation to the student.


=== Current state of educational robotics ===
=== Future of e-Learning ===
The main focus of current educational robotics is on education in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). When focusing on the educational applicability of robots, we find that, currently, the most commonly used robots in education are those that can be used to teach students programming and mechanical design (Ben-Ari & Mondada, 2018).
The system should be designed in such a way that even students who do not possess outstanding computer skills can use all the relevant components of the system. Although the problem of lower computer skills is decreasing as more children use these technologies, the design of the system should be inclusive enough that outliers of this trend can also use the system seamlessly. The design of the system should also be inclusive for teachers who do not possess outstanding computer skills.


Current educational robotics is, however, not limited to robots that are operated by students, there are already examples of the use of ‘social’ robots in education. Sharkey (2016) divides the current ‘social’ educational robots into four categories: (i) robots as classroom teachers, (ii) robots as companions and peers, (iii) robots as care-eliciting companions, and (iv) telepresence robot teachers.
It is of utmost importance that the system is reliable. As Pollock (2018) describes, ease of access is highly regarded by students. Teachers are interested in capabilities that entail information gathering. To summarize, the UI presented to students should be easy to use, and it is of utmost importance that the system is up and running at all times (minimal downtime for maintenance, and good recovery from errors). The information gathered about the students' performance should be presented in such a way that teachers can quickly discover where students are having issues. Perhaps a way to do this is to generate summary reports about the performance of the student. When the teacher accesses the profile of the student this summary is the first thing they see. For initial versions of the system, it can prove useful to interview the teachers who will use the system in the future.


Educational robots that act as peers or companions have already been used for several years. Already in 2009, it was shown that autonomous robots had the ability to improve vocabulary skills in toddlers (Movellan, Eckhardt, Virnes & Rodriquez, 2009). More recently, robotic classroom teachers became reality. RoboThespian is a life-sized humanoid robot that taught elementary school science classes in an experiment that was initiated in 2011. The results of the experiment show that it is already possible for a robot to teach elementary school science (Polishuk & Verner, 2017). Despite these results, humanoid robots in education are still expected to be great challenge in the robotics field in the coming years (TechNavio, 2018).
In order to ascertain maximum ease of use, the system should integrate nicely into the other systems offered by the school. If the integration of the system is subpar (for instance, it takes unnecessary steps for teachers to access information) then the system may have adverse effects on the quality of learning. It goes without saying that teachers will be less likely to want to use the system if it is hard to use.


While educational robotics keeps advancing, it is still unclear to what extent robots can be used in the classroom. Sharkey (2016) notes that, while telepresence and companion robots in education are likely to appear in educational settings in the coming years, actual robot teachers are not likely to be replacing humans in the near future. This same conclusion is reached by Reich-Stiebert and Eyssel (2016) after a study of the expectations and attitudes of teachers towards educational robots.
An important feature that the system should support entails the ability to quickly skim the contents of the entire course. In our system, students should be able to nudge the system so that they can receive assignments based on topics that the student wants to train again, even if the student already has a sufficient score for this topic.


=== Gamification ===
The system should also purely focus on improving the homework experience. Face-to-face lessons should not be replaced by the system.
Deterding et al. (2011) aim to investigate the origins of gamification and how it relates to serious games, pervasive games, alternate reality games and playful design. The paper suggests that gamified applications provide insight into new gameful phenomena that complement playful phenomena. The definition of gamification that is agreed upon states that gamification entails the use of game design elements in non-game contexts. Gamification is a new term for an older phenomenon, several precursors and parallels exist. Already in the early 1980’s (Deterding et al., 2011, p.2) research was performed in HCI to redress routine work using game elements.
 
 
= Outline of system functionality =
'''NB:''' this is a description of a fully featured version of the system (it shows how the system would look like if it were to be implemented for an entire school), some of these items do not apply to the prototype (which focuses only on one course). Certain items on this list are too difficult to make in the limited time/programming experience we have, these items are recognizable as they include (advanced) in their description. Other features that are not necessary for core system functionality are written in italics. Even though the prototype will not include all the items featured here, it might be worthwhile to show what our intentions/vision for the system is. The lists below show which subcomponents are needed in the system, and what tasks each subcomponent needs to fulfill.
 
=== Server ===
* Maintains student profiles, which contain:
** Username
** Password (unique to this service)
** ''Real name of student (so that results can be linked to the school’s administration)''
** ''Interests (advanced)''
** ''Courses that the student partakes in''
** Performance on topics that are handled in courses, for example:
*** Course: history (4th year VWO)
**** Knowledge on Industrial revolution (2/10) -> use introductory homework (amount: relatively many)
**** Knowledge on renaissance (10/10) -> use advanced questions (amount: relatively few)
**** Knowledge on stone age (6/10) -> use medium questions (amount: numIndRevolution > n > numRenaissance)
** Homework list (based on performance measure outlined above)
*Maintains course profiles, which contain:
** The topics that the course consists of (e.g. the chapters of a math book)
 
=== Study material ===
* Contains categorized assignments, ranging from
: 1. Introductory
: 2. Medium
: 3. Advanced
 
=== Client ===
* Web-based ''/ app-based''
* Student has username and password (to access/update profile stored on server)
* Student can input homework answers:
** Predetermined answers, such as calculations (math, physics, chemistry, etc.) or multiple choice questions
** ''Flexible answers: essay assignments (language, history, etc.)''
* Student receives assignment list of homework based on the topics that are taught in class. The difficulty and amount of assignments per topic depends on the student’s performance on previous homework, and comments made by the student.
* The student can let the system know if he/she finds a particular topic difficult. Whether a topic is easy is determined by the system, as such the student can override the system’s decision and be given more homework on one topic, but it is not possible for the student to circumvent making homework by notifying the system that all the homework is easy.
* Considering the system targets middle/high-school students, it may be useful if the system can display useful tips regarding studying (e.g. make material easier to recall), the system could also include a planning service, where the student learns how to plan their homework to get everything done on time.
 
=== AI ===
* ''(advanced) If multiple versions of an assignment exist (for instance math problems with a story), then the assignment description is used that is most in line with the interests of the student.''
* The performance of a student is based on:
** The difficulty of the exercise.
** The time it takes the student to complete the exercise.
*** ''To prevent the system from making mistakes by assuming that a student has difficulty with a particular assignment when in reality they are just slow readers or unfamiliar with computers, a calibration of their typing skills will be included in the beginning.''
** The number of completed exercises as compared to the total number of exercises.
**The number of hints used when attempting to solve a particular exercise.
* Adjusts the difficulty and amount of homework depending on the individual performance of the student
* The performance of the student is visible to the school administration and the teacher.
 
=== Summary ===
The system is an intelligent online learning system that is used to aid traditional teaching. It allows students to have a more personalized education. Students attend classes like they normally would, but the system keeps track of the student’s performance, and adjusts the difficulty and amount of homework depending on the individual performance of the student. In this way the student can more readily improve at topics that they find difficult, while knowledge on topics that they find easy is maintained. The performance of the student is visible to the school administration and the teacher. In this way the teacher can more easily find out if the class is struggling with a topic discussed in the course, and it allows the teacher to understand which students need the most help.


Hamari et al. (2014) performed a literature study of peer-reviewed empirical studies on gamification. Their aim was to create a framework for examining the effects of gamification using definitions of gamification and motivational affordances. The paper gives insight in the experiments performed in the peer reviewed studies. Hamari and Huotari stress that gamification should invoke the same psychological experiences that games invoke. Deterding on the other hand argues that affordances in gamified systems should be the same ones that are used in games. The studies that were included in the literature review used (one/some of the) following motivational affordances: points, leaderboards, achievements/badges, levels, story/theme, clear goals, feedback, rewards, progress, and challenge. The majority of studies focused on education/learning, intra-organizational systems, and work. But there were also studies on commerce, health/exercise, sharing, sustainable consumption, innovation/ideation, and data gathering. The paper concludes that gamification does appear to work, but that there are caveats. Quantitative research concluded that positive effects only existed in part of the considered relationships between gamification and the studied outcomes. Qualitative research showed that there may be underlying confounding factors that influence the effectiveness of gamification. The authors also state that more rigorous methodologies ought to be used in further research. The suggestions they give may be of use for our project in 0LAUK0.


In Deterding (2012), various views on gamification are presented by people involved in industries were gamification is relevant. Judd Antin, a social psychologist in the Internet Experiences research group at Yahoo! Research, remarks that gamification is a positive trend in that it signals a shift away from pecuniary and instrumental rewards. When done right, gamification can make use of powerful social psychological processes, such as self-efficacy, group identification and social approval to aid long term performance. Unfortunately many modern applications of gamification lack the ability to account for differences in individuals and contexts. Elizabeth Lawley, professor of interactive games and media and founder and director of the Lab for Social Computing at Rochester Institute of Technology argues as well that modern applications of gamification reduce well-designed games to their simplest components. These implementations may fail to engage players, but they might also damage existing interest or engagement with the service or product. She worked on “Just Press Play”, an achievement system for students in interactive games and media at the Rochester Institute of Technology. This system may be relevant for our study for 0LAUK0. Rajat Paharia, founder and chief product officer of Bunchball, describes in his section how his company designs gamified systems. He stresses the importance of context, and that for gamification to work, the goal that is gamified needs to have a core intrinsic value.
= Progression of prototype =
We choose to develop a prototype of our adaptive gamified online learning system using Moodle. An open source online learning system which we will customize with some existing plugins, as well as plugins that we develop ourselves such that we can implement the research we have done in a functional prototype. We decided to use Moodle after performing some [[PRE2017 3 Group8 Research on existing open source systems|research on existing open source systems]]. The development of plugins will be aided with work done on [[PRE2017 3 Group8 Research on the decision making system|research on the decision making system]]. The prototype can be found at https://agols.ga/.  


Lawley (n.d.) reflects on issues that the first version of “Just Press Play” suffered from (see also Deterding, 2012). Just Press Play is a gamified system designed at Rochester Institute of Technology, meant to help new students find their way around campus and to get them out of their comfort zone to partake in the university’s activities. Just Press Play is an achievement system, the original version used achievements based on internal system triggers (e.g. completing the tutorial), administratively assigned achievements (e.g. a certain percentage of the class manages to finish a difficult course), user submitted content (e.g. photos of things around the campus), collectible cards with a special code on it, and RFID keychains that can be used to receive credit for attending events. Due to technical issues the collectible cards and RFID keychains did not work out properly. In the second version of Just Press Play, RFID tags were replaced with QR code stickers that students can place on (for instance) their campus card or phone, which they can scan at events. Collectible cards are printed offsite and distributed to students after they unlock an achievement. Since the original cards were very popular, there are plans to make a card game using these cards. Privacy aspects and stability of the system was improved, and the categorization of the achievements was modified, as such there are now achievement quadrants (create, learn, socialize, explore).
From 12-03-18 to 18-03-18 our efforts went to adding course content to the site, and implementing the preexisting plugins such that we end up with a prototype that we can test. We decided to make two versions of the prototype course; one that is gamified, and one that is not. In this way we can evaluate the gamification elements when we test the prototype.


Nicholson (2015) describes six concepts (Reflection, Exposition, Choice, Information, Play, and Engagement) to help designers implement gamification in a meaningful way. Gamification can help users find personal connections, thereby motivating engagement. Nicholson argues that reward-based gamification (akin to operant conditioning) can lead to short-term improvements, but other game-based elements should be used to facilitate long-term change. He also argues that gamification should not be permanent. Reward-based gamification can be used to ease a user into a certain task, meaningful gamification can be used to strengthen the behavior, but eventually the user will get bored of the gamified system. As such gamification should be designed to ease the user into the real world context of the task.
==== Example logins ====
* Student: username: 'studentvoorbeeld', password 'Studentvoorbeeld_1'
* Teacher: username: 'docentvoorbeeld', password 'Docentvoorbeeld_1'


In Huang et al. (2013), gamification in education is discussed. It is stated that gamification is a specific application of “nudging”. A five-step process is discussed that can help in making a gamified system:
# Understanding the target audience and context
# Defining learning objectives
# Structuring the experience
# Identifying resources
# Applying gamification elements


In understanding the target audience and context it is also important to take into account the length of the learning program, where the program is conducted (class room/at home), if students work in groups (and how large these groups are). There are several common pain points in education that need to be considered:
== Changes made to existing plugins ==
* Focus: younger students are more easily distracted.
During last week (19-03-18 to 25-03-18) our efforts went to modifying the existing prototype such that they better fit our design recommendations. Furthermore, work was done on the final presentation and the final report.
* Skills: students may be demotivated to try when the task is to difficult, the student lacks the skills or knowledge required to complete the task.
* Physical, mental and emotional factors: fatigue, hunger, or emotions are factors that can affect a student’s learning abilities or other pain points.
* Motivation: young adults and adolescents commonly lack motivation.
* Pride: adults may believe they already know what is being taught, they may also choose to study material that is well above their skill/knowledge level. This issue may also occur when the instructor is younger than the students.
* Learning environment and nature of the course: this pain point consists of properties of the course, such as class size and structure of the program.


The paper discusses in an example how a math class can be structured such that gamification could be applied to it, this is very relevant regarding our project in 0LAUK0. Furthermore, a distinction is made between push and complete, where complete entails understanding the concepts in each stage, and push entails the motivation to go to the next stage. Lastly, Huang et al. (2013) also categorizes game mechanics in self-elements and social elements:
==== Adaptive Quiz ====
* Modifying the flexibility of the difficulty level - level is determined using less questions (originally, it was very difficult for users to change their level after answering a lot of questions). Required changes to ''catalgo.php -> compute_next_difficulty''. See https://gitlab.com/meesvandongen/adaptivequiz0lauk0/commit/8b3fa428afc0aec2a49bd9a4bc2ff1129739498d
* Storing the level over multiple quizzess -> level of the previous quiz on the same subject is used as the starting level of the next quiz. Required changes to ''attempt.php''. See https://gitlab.com/meesvandongen/adaptivequiz0lauk0/commit/a7f6c0d2725fa404cf93aa8b7a257968ca1173f6


{| class="wikitable" border='1'
|+ Examples of game mechanics, from Huang et al. (2013, p. 14)
|-
! Self-elements (complete stage)
! Social elements (push stage)
|-
| Points
| Leaderboards
|-
| Levels
| Virtual Goods
|-
| Trophies/badges
| Interactive cooperation
|-
| Virtual goods
| Storyline
|-
| Storyline
| -
|-
| Time restrictions
| -
|-
| Aesthetics
| -
|}


Arnold (2014) discusses in his paper among other things Bartle’s four basic categories of gamer, and how these categories are (mis)used in gamification. When making a gamified system it is important to notice that not all gamer categories like the same game elements (e.g. socializers do not care for leaderboards).
== How to apply “impact of literature study” and “description of system functionality” in moodle ==
* Socializers: more interested in having relations with the other players than playing the game.
* Achievers: competitive and enjoy beating challenges.
* Killers: provoke and cause drama in the scope of the virtual world.
* Explorers: like to explore the geography of the world as well as the mechanics of the game.


=== Online learning systems ===
In this section we describe how our findings of the literature study can be implemented in a moodle environment. We also describe how the system functionality described in our outline of system functionality can be applied in a moodle environment. https://tueslo.ga uses moodle version 3.0.10, due to an incompatibility issue with MySQL (relevant for finding the correct version of documentation).


==== Seven Principles For Good Practice in Undergraduate Education ====
==== Comments regarding the description of system functionality ====
'''[Abstract]''' ''The Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education grew out of a review of 50 years of research on the way teachers teach and students learn (Chickering and Gamson, 1987, p. 1) and a conference that brought together a distinguished group of researchers and commentators on higher education. The primary goal of the Principles’ authors was to identify practices, policies, and institutional conditions that would result in a powerful and enduring undergraduate education (Sorcinelli, 1991, p. 13).''
===== Server functionalities =====
http://www.lonestar.edu/multimedia/SevenPrinciples.pdf
*Useful links:
**https://docs.moodle.org/31/en/Course_enrolment
*Maintaining student profiles
**User accounts can be created at "sitebeheer\gebruikers\gebruikers\toevoegen". Originally managing real names of students and their interests was an advanced (not mandatory) feature. However, the forms in moodle already require that the real name of the user is added. Since there is also an input field for managing a user's interests, this feature may be more manageable. After a user account has been made, it needs to be enrolled in the course as a student. This can be done manually by an admin. Visit the course page, at "cursusbeheer\gebruikers\aangemelde gebruikers" users can be added to the course. Moodle docs also shows possibilities for importing users from an external service, which can be useful if a site like tueslo.ga is to be used by a high school. The user's profile tracks which courses they are enrolled in.


In this paper, Seven Principles of Good Practice in education are laid out. These practices help students learn more effectively. These are:
===== Study material functionalities =====
# Contact between student and faculty. “Faculty concern helps students get through rough times and keep on working. Knowing a few faculty members well enhances students’ intellectual commitment and encourages them to think about their own values and future plans.” Discussion groups are a valuable tool for this.
* when designing quizzes, it is possible to use tags to indicate the difficulty level of a question. It may also be possible to tag questions based on their topics. (at the bottom of the create question screen one can find the tags setting.)
# Cooperation among students. “Working with others often increases involvement in learning.” This can be accomplished using peer tutoring, group work - possibly in a project setting - or seminars
# Active learning. Active learning is a method in which the student learns by working with the course material. “Students do not learn much just by sitting in classes listening to teachers, memorizing prepackaged assignments, and spitting out answers.” Examples here are exercises, discussions, (team) projects, peer critiques and internships.
# Good feedback. Assess what the student knows, and more importantly what he doesn’t know. Give timely feedback, so that the student can incorporate it. The feedback needs to be frequent. Students should also learn to assess themselves.
# Time management. “Time plus energy equals learning. There is no substitute for time on task. Learning to use one’s time well is critical for students and professionals alike.” Make sure students spend time on a task and that students use their time efficiently. Tools: Mastery learning, contract learning, computer assisted instruction.
# High Expectations. “Expecting students to perform well becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy when teachers and institutions hold high expectations of themselves and make extra efforts.” Communicate the expectations, create programs out of the curriculum.
# Diverse Talents and Ways of Learning. “Students need the opportunity to show their talents and learn in ways that work for them.” Develop multiple ways for students to learn and work.


==== Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education: Effective Online Course Design to Assist Students’ Success ====
===== Client functionalities =====
'''[Abstract]''' ''The  purpose of  this  study  was to apply the Seven  Principles  for Good  Practice  in  Undergraduate Education  (Chickering  & Gamson,  1991) to  online  course  design  to  enhance students ’  success in  an online  course. A  survey  was  created  to  determine  students’  perception  of  strategies  and  skills  they  perceived  as  important  to  complete  an online course.  The survey was created based on behavioral learning, cognitive learning,  and  social  learning  frameworks.  The  responses  of  the 179 students  in  this  study  in  an  undergraduate  Computer  Applications  in Business  course at a large  southeastern  university were  categorized  by  the Seven  Principles . Results  of the survey  showed  the  course  design  strategies  and  what  students  valued  matched  well  with  the  Seven  Principles Implications  of  the  study  provide  evidence  that  good  course  design  embed s the  seven  principles to ensure students are successful in the online learning environment.''
* Useful links:
http://virtualchalkdust.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Crews_0315.pdf
**https://moodle.org/plugins/block_homework plugin to automatically manage homework notifications etc.
**https://docs.moodle.org/29/en/Assignment_activity documentation on how students can submit homework assignments for review (e.g. uploading a word file for review).
**https://moodle.org/plugins/mod_adaptivequiz an existing plugin that uses performance on the current question in a test to decide on the difficulty level of the next question in the test.
**https://docs.moodle.org/31/en/Question_bank
*Student can input homework answers
**Documentation shows how students can upload files to the moodle site so that teachers can evaluate the contents of these files.
**Teachers can create quizzes and lessons from question banks. Our AI/algorithm could be implemented as a plugin that uses student performance to decide which questions from the question bank need to be included (based on their tags). Since custom tags can be added, it may be possible to choose questions based on interests, besides choosing questions based on difficulty.


Online design which takes into account these seven principles can be perceived as being a good system by the students using it. The literature review is useful:
==== Comments regarding impact of literature study ====
Disadvantages of online course design as noted by Clark (2003):
===== Flow theory: =====
* discussions that are not connected in time and seem disjointed;
*As indicated in the ‘Comments regarding the description of system functionality’ section, https://moodle.org/plugins/mod_adaptivequiz is an existing plugin that uses performance on the current question in a test to decide on the difficulty level of the next question in the test.
* lack of clear guidelines for participation;
*When creating a question, general feedback can be provided as well as feedback that is only shown when a specific answer is given. (https://docs.moodle.org/27/en/Building_Quiz)
* lack of engagement in an asynchronous environment;
===== Education by human teachers: =====
* difficulty in collaborative online projects; and
*An initial quiz could be used where they can answer questions regarding which level they think they are at.
* lack of communication with the instructor and other students.
*Certainty based marking could be used so that students can indicate how sure they are of their answer, which increases the need for reflection of their own work. (https://docs.moodle.org/31/en/Using_certainty-based_marking)
These points should be taken into account when designing an online learning system. Salmon (2002) and Huang (2002) say online systems should focus on:
===== Gamification: =====
* access
*Some gamification plug-ins: https://moodle.org/plugins/browse.php?list=set&id=88
* motivation
*When the student just starts with the course, reward based techniques like points and levels (https://moodle.org/plugins/block_xp) or badges (https://moodle.org/plugins/availability_badge) can be used to facilitate initial improvement. Later in the course these methods should not be used.
* socialization
===== Online learning systems: =====
* information exchange
*A suggestions box where students can suggest topics they want to be discussed in the next lecture can be implemented in the form of an essay question or survey. Students are free to answer this question whenever they like.
* knowledge construction
* interactive learning
* collaborative learning
* facilitating learning
* authentic learning
* student centered learning


==== Implementing the Seven Principles: Technology as Lever ====
A summary of references to useful existing moodle plugins and documentation can be found [[PRE2017 3 Group8 moodle plugins|here]].
'''[abstract]''' ''In March 1987, the AAHE Bulletin first published “Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education.” With support from Lilly Endowment, that document was followed by a Seven Principles Faculty Inventory and an Institutional Inventory (Johnson Foundation, 1989) and by a Student Inventory (1990). The Principles, created by Art Chickering and Zelda Gamson with help from higher education colleagues, AAHE, and the Education Commission of the States, with support from the Johnson Foundation, distilled findings from decades of research on the undergraduate experience.
''Since the Seven Principles of Good Practice were created in 1987, new communication and information technologies have become major resources for teaching and learning in higher education. If the power of the new technologies is to be fully realized, they should be employed in ways consistent with the Seven Principles. Such technologies are tools with multiple capabilities; it is misleading to make assertions like “Microcomputers will empower students” because that is only one way in which computers might be used.
''Any given instructional strategy can be supported by a number of contrasting technologies (old and new), just as any given technology might support different instructional strategies. But for any given instructional strategy, some technologies are better than others: Better to turn a screw with a screwdriver than a hammer — a dime may also do the trick, but a screwdriver is usually better.
''This essay, then, describes some of the most cost-effective and appropriate ways to use computers, video, and telecommunications technologies to advance the Seven Principles.''


* Good Practice Encourages Contacts Between Students and Faculty. Technology can be very useful here. Digital questions can graded quicker than for example physical homework, students that are shy or otherwise not able to communicate with the teacher face to face can more easily and safely do so by online communication. language barriers are not as high when people have more time to interpret the questions.
= Testing the prototype =
* Cooperation. Same story here, communication between students is improved.
* Active learning. The internet gives a big opportunity for researching into topics. computer software can be used to encourage active learning, through software based homework. Simulation can be done of what is not feasible or otherwise more cumbersome in real life. An example of this is physics simulations.
* Feedback: “Computers also have a growing role in recording and analyzing personal and professional performances. Teachers can use technology to provide critical observations for an apprentice; for example, video to help a novice teacher, actor, or athlete critique his or her own performance.” Next to this, computers can be used to store past performances and later be used by teachers to evaluate growth.
* Time on task: working from home can save student’s time otherwise spent commuting. technology can be used to document time on task and possibly communicate this back to student.
* High Expectations: “Many faculty report that students feel stimulated by knowing their finished work will be “published” on the World Wide Web. With technology, criteria for evaluating products and performances can be more clearly articulated by the teacher, or generated collaboratively with students. General criteria can be illustrated with samples of excellent, average, mediocre, and faulty performance. These samples can be shared and modified easily. They provide a basis for peer evaluation, so learning teams can help everyone succeed. ”
* Diverse talents and ways of learning. Give students who can handle it freedom. Give those who can’t extra attention. Students with similar learning styles, or who need each other for learning can be brought together.


The article also mentions that simply using technology is not enough. It must be in line with the seven principles. Technology should motivate the student, i.e. with materials that are problem oriented, relevant to real world problems or interactive.
In the [[PRE2017 3 Group8 Test plan|test plan]] we describe how we want to test the prototype. Testing consists of two phases. First, we want to hold a focus group with teachers of a local high school in order to refine our concept. For the second stage of testing, we want to let students of a local high school interact with the system. These plans are not yet final, as such, they are subject to change. In case we are not able to test the system at a school we will instead try to hold an experiment among students at the TU/e.


==== Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning in Higher Education: An Introduction ====
Due to issues in organizing a focus group, the team decided to adapt the contents of the focus group into an online questionnaire. We hope that this will lower the boundary to entry such that we can still obtain feedback from teachers to improve our design.
'''[abstract]''' ''The rapidly increasing use of computers in education, and in particular the migration of many university courses to web-based delivery, has caused a resurgence of interest among educators in non-traditional methods of course design and delivery. This chapter provides an introduction to the field of computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL). First, some of the major benefits are listed. Then, some of the common problems are described, and solutions are either given or pointed to in the literature. Finally, pointers are given to some of the more recent research in this area.''


Roberts, Tim. (2005). Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning in Higher Education: An Introduction. Computer-supported Collaborative Learning in Higher Education. 16. . 10.4018/978-1-59140-408-8.ch001.


=== References ===
= [[Photos_agols| Screenshots of the prototype ]]=
In this page you can find screenshots of Agols and descriptions of the different aspects shown.

Latest revision as of 21:35, 2 April 2018

Final report

The final deliverable the group set out to make is a report that details our findings on the application of flow theory in education, and recommendations for applying this knowledge in a prototype, as well as discussing our findings regarding challenges and good practices in online learning systems, and recommendations for applying these findings in a prototype.

The report can be found here.

A copy of the report was also sent as an attachment in the email that contains the peer reviews.

Final presentation

The final presentation that was given on 26-03-2018 can be found here.

The demonstration video that was shown at the end of the presentation can be found here.

Important Links


Information about ideation

Problem Statement and objectives

Online learning refers to methods of learning that employ online educational technologies. The University of Phoenix was the first to employ online learning in 1989. Since that time, the popularity of online learning systems has greatly increased. In the school year 2013-2014, 75% percent of all United States district offered online or blended courses for K-12 students (Connections Academy, n.d.).

Even though online learning systems are used by many students, there are still challenges regarding these learning methods. Challenges in online learning include keeping students motivated, increasing efficiency of learning and providing insights into learning points for students.

The objectives of this project are:

  • To evaluate the current challenges in online learning.
  • To evaluate the factors influencing the adoption of online learning systems.
  • To evaluate the current approaches to online learning.
  • To evaluate the effects of different learning styles on learning.
  • To develop an online learning system that applies the knowledge acquired from the previous four objectives.

Who are the users?

Our research focuses on improving the quality of online education, where the focus will be on creating an online learning system that can be used by middle-/high-school students. The online learning system that we propose will gather data regarding the performance of students in order to personalise their learning experience. Considering this system will be a part of an existing education system, it will have to be integrated in the existing logistics of schools. For instance, teachers should be able to review the performance of students.

What are the user requirements?

For the students it is important that the difficulty of questions is at the correct level for them. If the questions are too easy they will get bored and if the questions are too difficult they will get demotivated.

For the teachers it is important to have insights into the results of their students so that they can judge the progress of their students.

Both for teachers and students it is important that the user interface of the assistant is clear. For students it needs to be clear what they are expected to do, and feedback needs to be provided when they submit a wrong answer. For teachers it should be easy to judge the progress of their students.

The most important requirement for the management of a school is that the online learning system can be integrated into the current style of education that is provided at the school. This means that the online learning system should be highly adaptive so that it can be adjusted to the specific needs of the specific schools it is implemented in.

Approach, milestones and deliverables

The group will be divided in parts. One part will focus on creating the report and making suggestions and recommendations for implementation in the learning system. The other part will focus on developing the teaching assistant.

The team will first create a minimal usable product, which implements all requirements of the user. After this milestone is reached, the system will be tested and suggestions for improvement will be made. These will be implemented in the second (final) phase, which forms our second milestone.

The team sets out to create three deliverables:

  • A working prototype; an online learning system which enables personalised learning.
  • A report detailing:
    • Our findings on the application of flow theory in education, and recommendations for applying this knowledge in the prototype.
    • Our findings regarding challenges and good practices in online learning systems, and recommendations for applying these findings in the prototype.
  • A presentation in which the aforementioned report is discussed and the prototype is presented.

Who does what?

In general group 8 works in a shared google drive folder (see important links). Our planning is specified in a seperate file in the google drive folder. This planning document specifies for each task who is responsible and the required timeframe in which the tasks need to be completed. The are also some reoccurring tasks that are assigned to a group member. Please note that this wiki will be updated weekly to reflect the final state of the google drive folder 18 hours before the weekly meeting.

  • E-mail (responsible for e-mail contact with lecturers and schools): Wouter
  • Wiki updater (responsible for updating the wiki on time): Mitchell
  • Secretary (responsible for taking notes of feedback sessions): Nikki

References

  1. Connections Academy. (n.d.) “Infographic: Growth of K-12 Digital Learning.” Growth of K-12 Online Education Infographic, https://www.connectionsacademy.com/news/growth-of-k-12-online-education-infographic.


USE aspects

User

The system has two primary groups of users: the students and the teachers. This system can be very desirable for the teacher as it can give detailed insight into the performance of students. Using this information the teacher can figure out more easily what topics he should focus on more in lectures, and which students should receive more attention regarding questions about the course material. The system can also be very desirable for students, as it can help with learning how to deal with course material; e.g. how they should plan their homework and make the most efficient use of their available time to learn as much as possible. Furthermore, because the system uses flow theory education may become less boring and more engaging to students. This in turn may motivate them to strive to complete more difficult education programs. To summarize, when it comes to user aspects of the system, it can make education more personal and better adjusted to the needs of the students.

Society

As was discussed in the section on user aspects of the technology, the main benefits of the system entail that high school education can become more personalized to the needs of the students. If the system succeeds in making education less boring and more engaging it might be possible that more students are able to come by in higher forms of education. As such the general level of education in society may increase, which is beneficial in a highly automated information society.

Enterprise

The system can have large implications on the enterprise regarding education. If the system is used by many schools, then the media companies that write text books may very well adapt course material to be more compatible with this system. Schools, as an enterprise, need to adapt their infrastructure such that the system can run in tandem with the school’s remaining digital infrastructure, as such schools will have to invest time and money in integrating the system into their infrastructure. It depends on a school to school basis whether or not the system will be put to use, some schools might find the costs for setting up the system too much compared to the increase in student performance that the system can deliver. Third party companies might step in and host the services that the system requires, such that it becomes easier and/or cheaper for schools to start using it, as they no longer have to host the service themselves.


SotA: Summary of literature study

We conducted a literature study in order to gain a better understanding of concepts relevant to our problem statement. We identified several topics which we deemed interesting. The summary of the literature study focusses on six distinct topics.

Impact of Literature Study

Based on the literature study that has been done, several items have been deemed important to include in our design. The impact of each of the topics which we researched is described below.

Flow Theory

Wesson and Boniwell (2007) describe seven conditions for getting in the flow. The following items are deemed important to include in the design of our learning assistant:

  • Balancing challenge and skill: for our system this means that the level of the questions will be adapted to each individual’s capabilities with regard to certain topics.
  • Having clear goals: for our system this means that a clear goal needs to be stated that a student can work towards by working with the system. For instance, for mathematics homework a goal could be to be able to apply the concepts taught in a certain chapter of the mathematics book that they use.
  • Receiving clear and immediate feedback: for our system this implies that the student should be able to read their feedback immediately after answering the question. In an ideal system this feedback would also be adapted to the answer that the students has provided.

All three of these items are conditions for people to get ‘in flow’, enabling them to focus better on tasks and perform better.

Education by Human Teachers

Moran and Malott (2004) describe two important teaching models, the Direct Instruction (DI) teaching model and the Precision Teaching (PT) model. Both of these teaching models, as well as combinations of the two, have been shown to have a positive effect on the learning process, which is why we aim to include items from both models in our system.

The DI teaching model focuses on the importance of repetition and continuous practice of topics. Based on this teaching model we propose that our system should not entirely omit questions on topics that students scored well in in the past, instead it should ask questions on these topics that match the students level.

The PT teaching model allows students to reflect on their own work. Based on precision theory we propose to allow students to indicate the level they think they are at regarding a specific topic. The level indicated by the student will be taken into account by the system to select the initial difficulty of questions. The difficulty will still be adapted as a result of the student’s performance. Also, the 'Standard Celeration Charts' that PT uses can be a good way to output the results of the students to allow for easy comparison by the teacher.

Learning Styles

During our research into learning styles we found that much of the research did not lead to conclusive results, and that there is a lack of evidence for the effectiveness of learning style models. This is why we will not adapt our system to the learning style of students. Research has indicated, however, that the teaching style should match with the topics that one is trying to teach.

Gamification

As Nicholson (2015) describes, reward based gamification (akin to operant conditioning) can lead to short term improvements, but different game-elements should be used to facilitate long term improvement. Gamification should also not be permanent.

For our system this means that when the student starts with a course, reward based gamification can be applied. As the student masters the easy level of homework we need to give them more freedom and enable them to find intrinsic value in the subject material. It is at this point that we make the gamification less reward-based (sparser points, less emphasis on level, etc.) but move on to meaningful gamification (using Nicholson’s RECIPE; Play, Exposition, Choice, Information, Engagement, Reflection). Eventually (when the student has found intrinsic value in the course material and is adequate at the topics presented in the course) the student will find that the gamification elements no longer add to the learning process of this course. As such we need to ease the student into homework that is no longer gamified. We could ask the student what they felt about their last homework session, and use that information, combined with their performance metrics to find out what kind of gamification we need to apply for the next homework session.

Using the work of Huang et al. It becomes important to thoroughly define the following constructs in order to guide the design of the system:

  • Understanding target audience and context. This will change depending on the type of school that the system is designed for (for instance high school or elementary school, or a school for special needs students), another important factor for defining the context entails the study program. All in all the team should look thoroughly in order to understand the target audience and context of use as good as possible.
  • Defining learning objectives (this will change on a course to course basis)
  • Structuring the experience. Regarding learning, the experience could be structured based on the topics discussed during the course, as well as the difficulty level of subtopics.
  • Identifying resources
  • The application of gamification elements can follow based on Nicholson's work (2015).

From the work of Arnold (2014) we find that it is beneficial to figure out what type of gamer the user is. Not all gamer categories like the same game elements, therefore not all types of gamification may be appreciated by the user. We could for instance ask the user when they make their profile what types of games they like to play and why they like to play them, and determine a gamer type based on that information.

Online Learning Systems

The research of Chickering et al. (1987) gives good insight into practices that an online learning system should follow. When applied to intelligent adaptive online learning systems, the practices could be implemented like this:

  • Maintain contact between the student and the faculty. This means that the online learning system should be a part of the education process, not a replacement for face-to-face teaching. Lectures and question hours need to be maintained next to the online system. One way to enhance this functionality would be to allow students to ask questions to the teachers, or make a suggestion that a topic receives extra attention in the next lecture. Using these techniques (as well as feedback on assignment performance) the bar is lowered for shy students or students that have difficulty in communicating to interact with their faculty.
  • In order to facilitate active learning, the system should be able to produce and handle questions of varying nature. This could be facilitated by implementing projects (larger assignments that students optionally tackle in groups) or peer critiques.
  • The system can facilitate good feedback if it is able to quickly and accurately give feedback regarding the performance of the student. The system should not only indicate that the answer was wrong, but it also has to indicate where exactly issues pop up in the answers of the student. By using these performance metrics teachers can adapt the course, in which case changes to the course can also be considered feedback.
  • The system facilitates time management by adaptively choosing which homework is suitable for a student. Instead of working endlessly on easy exercises and not having enough time to work on the most difficult ones, the system ensures that students spend their time well. For elementary and high school students it may be beneficial to let the system help the student in planning when they need to work on their homework.
  • The performance data gathered by the system can help the education program make extra efforts to help students progress through the course material. The system can communicate expectations that the school has by setting up milestones that students have to fulfill.
  • The system should communicate clear guidelines for participation to the student.

Future of e-Learning

The system should be designed in such a way that even students who do not possess outstanding computer skills can use all the relevant components of the system. Although the problem of lower computer skills is decreasing as more children use these technologies, the design of the system should be inclusive enough that outliers of this trend can also use the system seamlessly. The design of the system should also be inclusive for teachers who do not possess outstanding computer skills.

It is of utmost importance that the system is reliable. As Pollock (2018) describes, ease of access is highly regarded by students. Teachers are interested in capabilities that entail information gathering. To summarize, the UI presented to students should be easy to use, and it is of utmost importance that the system is up and running at all times (minimal downtime for maintenance, and good recovery from errors). The information gathered about the students' performance should be presented in such a way that teachers can quickly discover where students are having issues. Perhaps a way to do this is to generate summary reports about the performance of the student. When the teacher accesses the profile of the student this summary is the first thing they see. For initial versions of the system, it can prove useful to interview the teachers who will use the system in the future.

In order to ascertain maximum ease of use, the system should integrate nicely into the other systems offered by the school. If the integration of the system is subpar (for instance, it takes unnecessary steps for teachers to access information) then the system may have adverse effects on the quality of learning. It goes without saying that teachers will be less likely to want to use the system if it is hard to use.

An important feature that the system should support entails the ability to quickly skim the contents of the entire course. In our system, students should be able to nudge the system so that they can receive assignments based on topics that the student wants to train again, even if the student already has a sufficient score for this topic.

The system should also purely focus on improving the homework experience. Face-to-face lessons should not be replaced by the system.


Outline of system functionality

NB: this is a description of a fully featured version of the system (it shows how the system would look like if it were to be implemented for an entire school), some of these items do not apply to the prototype (which focuses only on one course). Certain items on this list are too difficult to make in the limited time/programming experience we have, these items are recognizable as they include (advanced) in their description. Other features that are not necessary for core system functionality are written in italics. Even though the prototype will not include all the items featured here, it might be worthwhile to show what our intentions/vision for the system is. The lists below show which subcomponents are needed in the system, and what tasks each subcomponent needs to fulfill.

Server

  • Maintains student profiles, which contain:
    • Username
    • Password (unique to this service)
    • Real name of student (so that results can be linked to the school’s administration)
    • Interests (advanced)
    • Courses that the student partakes in
    • Performance on topics that are handled in courses, for example:
      • Course: history (4th year VWO)
        • Knowledge on Industrial revolution (2/10) -> use introductory homework (amount: relatively many)
        • Knowledge on renaissance (10/10) -> use advanced questions (amount: relatively few)
        • Knowledge on stone age (6/10) -> use medium questions (amount: numIndRevolution > n > numRenaissance)
    • Homework list (based on performance measure outlined above)
  • Maintains course profiles, which contain:
    • The topics that the course consists of (e.g. the chapters of a math book)

Study material

  • Contains categorized assignments, ranging from
1. Introductory
2. Medium
3. Advanced

Client

  • Web-based / app-based
  • Student has username and password (to access/update profile stored on server)
  • Student can input homework answers:
    • Predetermined answers, such as calculations (math, physics, chemistry, etc.) or multiple choice questions
    • Flexible answers: essay assignments (language, history, etc.)
  • Student receives assignment list of homework based on the topics that are taught in class. The difficulty and amount of assignments per topic depends on the student’s performance on previous homework, and comments made by the student.
  • The student can let the system know if he/she finds a particular topic difficult. Whether a topic is easy is determined by the system, as such the student can override the system’s decision and be given more homework on one topic, but it is not possible for the student to circumvent making homework by notifying the system that all the homework is easy.
  • Considering the system targets middle/high-school students, it may be useful if the system can display useful tips regarding studying (e.g. make material easier to recall), the system could also include a planning service, where the student learns how to plan their homework to get everything done on time.

AI

  • (advanced) If multiple versions of an assignment exist (for instance math problems with a story), then the assignment description is used that is most in line with the interests of the student.
  • The performance of a student is based on:
    • The difficulty of the exercise.
    • The time it takes the student to complete the exercise.
      • To prevent the system from making mistakes by assuming that a student has difficulty with a particular assignment when in reality they are just slow readers or unfamiliar with computers, a calibration of their typing skills will be included in the beginning.
    • The number of completed exercises as compared to the total number of exercises.
    • The number of hints used when attempting to solve a particular exercise.
  • Adjusts the difficulty and amount of homework depending on the individual performance of the student
  • The performance of the student is visible to the school administration and the teacher.

Summary

The system is an intelligent online learning system that is used to aid traditional teaching. It allows students to have a more personalized education. Students attend classes like they normally would, but the system keeps track of the student’s performance, and adjusts the difficulty and amount of homework depending on the individual performance of the student. In this way the student can more readily improve at topics that they find difficult, while knowledge on topics that they find easy is maintained. The performance of the student is visible to the school administration and the teacher. In this way the teacher can more easily find out if the class is struggling with a topic discussed in the course, and it allows the teacher to understand which students need the most help.


Progression of prototype

We choose to develop a prototype of our adaptive gamified online learning system using Moodle. An open source online learning system which we will customize with some existing plugins, as well as plugins that we develop ourselves such that we can implement the research we have done in a functional prototype. We decided to use Moodle after performing some research on existing open source systems. The development of plugins will be aided with work done on research on the decision making system. The prototype can be found at https://agols.ga/.

From 12-03-18 to 18-03-18 our efforts went to adding course content to the site, and implementing the preexisting plugins such that we end up with a prototype that we can test. We decided to make two versions of the prototype course; one that is gamified, and one that is not. In this way we can evaluate the gamification elements when we test the prototype.

Example logins

  • Student: username: 'studentvoorbeeld', password 'Studentvoorbeeld_1'
  • Teacher: username: 'docentvoorbeeld', password 'Docentvoorbeeld_1'


Changes made to existing plugins

During last week (19-03-18 to 25-03-18) our efforts went to modifying the existing prototype such that they better fit our design recommendations. Furthermore, work was done on the final presentation and the final report.

Adaptive Quiz


How to apply “impact of literature study” and “description of system functionality” in moodle

In this section we describe how our findings of the literature study can be implemented in a moodle environment. We also describe how the system functionality described in our outline of system functionality can be applied in a moodle environment. https://tueslo.ga uses moodle version 3.0.10, due to an incompatibility issue with MySQL (relevant for finding the correct version of documentation).

Comments regarding the description of system functionality

Server functionalities
  • Useful links:
  • Maintaining student profiles
    • User accounts can be created at "sitebeheer\gebruikers\gebruikers\toevoegen". Originally managing real names of students and their interests was an advanced (not mandatory) feature. However, the forms in moodle already require that the real name of the user is added. Since there is also an input field for managing a user's interests, this feature may be more manageable. After a user account has been made, it needs to be enrolled in the course as a student. This can be done manually by an admin. Visit the course page, at "cursusbeheer\gebruikers\aangemelde gebruikers" users can be added to the course. Moodle docs also shows possibilities for importing users from an external service, which can be useful if a site like tueslo.ga is to be used by a high school. The user's profile tracks which courses they are enrolled in.
Study material functionalities
  • when designing quizzes, it is possible to use tags to indicate the difficulty level of a question. It may also be possible to tag questions based on their topics. (at the bottom of the create question screen one can find the tags setting.)
Client functionalities
  • Useful links:
  • Student can input homework answers
    • Documentation shows how students can upload files to the moodle site so that teachers can evaluate the contents of these files.
    • Teachers can create quizzes and lessons from question banks. Our AI/algorithm could be implemented as a plugin that uses student performance to decide which questions from the question bank need to be included (based on their tags). Since custom tags can be added, it may be possible to choose questions based on interests, besides choosing questions based on difficulty.

Comments regarding impact of literature study

Flow theory:
  • As indicated in the ‘Comments regarding the description of system functionality’ section, https://moodle.org/plugins/mod_adaptivequiz is an existing plugin that uses performance on the current question in a test to decide on the difficulty level of the next question in the test.
  • When creating a question, general feedback can be provided as well as feedback that is only shown when a specific answer is given. (https://docs.moodle.org/27/en/Building_Quiz)
Education by human teachers:
  • An initial quiz could be used where they can answer questions regarding which level they think they are at.
  • Certainty based marking could be used so that students can indicate how sure they are of their answer, which increases the need for reflection of their own work. (https://docs.moodle.org/31/en/Using_certainty-based_marking)
Gamification:
Online learning systems:
  • A suggestions box where students can suggest topics they want to be discussed in the next lecture can be implemented in the form of an essay question or survey. Students are free to answer this question whenever they like.

A summary of references to useful existing moodle plugins and documentation can be found here.

Testing the prototype

In the test plan we describe how we want to test the prototype. Testing consists of two phases. First, we want to hold a focus group with teachers of a local high school in order to refine our concept. For the second stage of testing, we want to let students of a local high school interact with the system. These plans are not yet final, as such, they are subject to change. In case we are not able to test the system at a school we will instead try to hold an experiment among students at the TU/e.

Due to issues in organizing a focus group, the team decided to adapt the contents of the focus group into an online questionnaire. We hope that this will lower the boundary to entry such that we can still obtain feedback from teachers to improve our design.


Screenshots of the prototype

In this page you can find screenshots of Agols and descriptions of the different aspects shown.

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