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Artificially
Intelligent * Adaptive Instruction
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Course Design
Alternatives
Alternative
Syllabus Illustrations
for Designing
Your Course
Using Adaptive
On-Line Textbooks
Your New Teaching
Opportunities:
The most critical thing to
consider after adopting the
MediaMatrix adaptive instructional
system for delivering your text
assignments revolves around the
importance of requiring that students
read and test, at a miminum. But if
that is all you require, then you are
likely to see minimal improvements in
student performance over classes
where a traditional "printed" text is
used. If there is such an improvement
it will likely come mostly from the
fact that more students are actually
reading the text you have
assigned.
To see more significant
improvements in student performance,
you need to find additional ways to
assure that students come into
contact with the tutorial and
self-assessment features that
distinguish MediaMatrix and its
adaptive instructional strategies
from all its competitor products.
There are, of course, many variations
that instructors may select, so we
have outlined below only three of the
many Primary Variations for
incorporating the Adaptive
Instructional System into your
course. Adopting instructors may wish
to use some of the items below as
example syllabus draft elements for
explaining to students exactly what
their course requirements are. Three
common variations are provided below
to assist you in writing your
syllabus to reflect the course
structure you prefer.
Example I.
Modified Traditional Course Structure:
The "Prepared Learner"
Approach
This structure involves
significant incorporation of Required
and Verified Text Readings to assure
that when students come to your class
they have done adequate and desired
preparation for what you plan to do
in class. However, the approach can
apply varying emphasis on using
Tutoring or Self-Assessment
components. This example also
includes in-class verifications of
out-of-class performance.
Example syllabus
statement:
There are several important
points to be stressed concerning
your required reading of the
electronic text materials assigned
in this course.
a. Each assigned chapter in
your electronic text requires
that you take at least one
"Mastery Certification" test for
that chapter. The average of
these test scores contributes 50%
of your total course grade
(INSTRUCTOR: replace with
percentage you prefer).
b. You may take the adaptively
constructed variations of a
single chapter's test as many
times as you like up until that
chapter's deadline, which is
always the night before its
topical material is first
discussed in class or presented
in lectures. These deadlines are
highlighted within your textbook
system when you select chapters
for certification.
c. Only the highest score for
a given chapter will count toward
your final course grade,
regardless of how many times you
take Certification Tests for a
given chapter.
d. There will be 3
(INSTRUCTOR: replace with the
number you prefer) in-class
tests plus a final exam. These
tests will be composed of items
from the assigned text and from
class presentations and
discussions, with each source
contributing 50% (INSTRUCTOR:
replace with percentage you
prefer).
e. Students are encouraged,
but not required, to use the
adaptive tutoring and
self-assessment services in the
electronic text as preparation
for each chapter's certification
tests. (INSTRUCTOR: You may
change the character of this
option significantly by
incorporating either bonus points
for Tutoring and/or self-Quizzing
on each topic and/or by setting
Required Tutoring options to "on"
≠ see On-line Course example
below).
Example II.
On-Line Teaching Course Structure: The
"Distance Learner"
Approach
This option incorporates an
on-line teaching of the Introductory
course with varying degrees of
verified performance as options. This
approach relies heavily upon
requiring and/or incentive-approaches
to use of tutoring and self-quizzing
features as well as Chapter
Certification:
Example syllabus
statement:
This course presents an
introductory topical survey of the
various aspects of Psychology as
both a scientific and an applied
discipline. Unique to this
particular offering of Psy 101 is
its sole reliance on electronic
text, tutoring and mastery
certification testing. This unique
mixture of tutoring and testing
allows the course to be delivered
exclusively on-line. Only a final
exam requires you to come to
campus. Grades for the course will
be determined by a combination of
these electronic certification
tests and one supervised final exam
using the following procedures and
rules:
Electronic Certification of
Text Mastery
75% (INSTRUCTOR: -replace
with percentages you
prefer). of your final
grade for the course will be
determined by the composite
(average) grades established
through electronic
certification of chapter
readings for ALL of the
17 chapters of text assigned.
Any missed certification tests
count in this average as a zero
for each skipped chapter.
Certification testing on any
and all chapters takes place as
follows:
1. You may take any
chapter certification test
as many times as you
wish, with only the
maximum obtained score
counting towards your
eventual course grade.
Maximum scores are maintained
on an Internet server, and
you must have an active
connection with that server
at the time of submission of
your test results for the
grade to be recorded. Only a
score greater than your
previous score for that
chapter will be recorded to
the server.
2. IMPORTANT NOTE:
Students are allowed 2
(INSTRUCTOR: replace with
the number you prefer)
diagnostic opportunities to
make at least a 70%
(INSTRUCTOR: replace with
percentage you prefer) or
better score on each chapter.
If this level is not
accomplished within the
administration of these 2
tests, then students are
required to use the adaptive
tutoring services in the
electronic text as
preparation for retaking that
chapter's certification
tests. Where sufficient data
on successful learning of a
given topic exists, you may
not be required to tutor on
that topic. Thus all required
topics will appear in a
navigable list to aid your
tutoring for all required
topics in a chapter prior to
taking your next
certification tests.
(INSTRUCTOR: You may
change the character of this
option further by
incorporating either bonus
points for Tutoring and/or
self-Quizzing)
3. You may take any
chapter certification at any
time UP TO MIDNIGHT of
the published
Certification Due Date
for that chapter. Thus a test
due on, say, Jan 20, will
have to be completed before
11:59 PM of Jan 20. When
midnight starts Jan 21, your
test scores will no longer be
accepted by the server.
Attempts to start a chapter
test after this date will
also give you a message that
the due date for that chapter
has expired and the test is
no longer available.
NOTE: All students
are STRONGLY ENCOURAGED
to anticipate due dates in
advance and both read and
certify well before deadlines.
In fact, waiting until the last
few hours of the deadline date
will almost always meet
sufficient traffic on the
server as to make the server's
responses less than 100%
reliable. If you wait until the
last minute it is quite likely
that you may miss submitting
your test score successfully.
DO NOT PROCRASTINATE;
instead, certify often and
certify early!
Supervised Testing of All
Materials Covered
25% (INSTRUCTOR: -replace
with percentages you
prefer). of your final
grade for the course will be
determined by a final exam that
is two hours in length, or
approximately 300 questions
sampled from the text's
electronic testing bank.
NOTE: This means that
you will be tested on text
assignments both electronically
without supervision and under
supervised conditions.
Example III.
Personalized System of Instruction
(PSI) Course Structure: The
"Independent Learner"
Approach
The Personalized System of
Instruction (PSI) Format for offering
a course would use many of the same
components of the "on-line" version
of a course, but may (or may not)
incorporate personal supervision of
student progress in some form.
Specifically:
a. Each assigned chapter in your
electronic text requires that you
take at least one "Mastery
Certification" test for that
chapter.
b. You may take the adaptively
constructed variations of a single
chapter's test as many times as you
like until you satisfy the
"passing" criteria of 80%.
(INSTRUCTOR: replace with
percentages you prefer) Please
note, however, that EACH such
testing effort must be supervised
by a course mentor who will log the
time of your testing as
verification that it was
supervised. (INSTRUCTOR: not
required if you prefer to allow
unsupervised testing and unmanaged
progression.)
c. Only the highest score for a
given chapter will count toward
your final course grade, regardless
of how many times you take
Certification Tests for a given
chapter.
d. There will be NO FINAL exam.
(INSTRUCTOR: include a Final if
you like, but it should be
supervised and count in the total
course grade only some proportional
percentage).
e. Students are allowed 2
(INSTRUCTOR: replace with the
number you prefer) diagnostic
opportunities to make at least a
80% (INSTRUCTOR: replace with
percentages you prefer) or
better score on each chapter. If
this level is not accomplished
within the administration of these
2 tests, then students are required
to use the adaptive tutoring
services in the electronic text as
preparation for retaking that
chapter's certification tests.
Where sufficient data on your
successful preparation of a topic
exists, you may not be required to
tutor that topic. Thus all required
topics will appear in a navigable
list to aid your tutoring for all
required topics in a chapter prior
to taking your next certification
tests. (INSTRUCTOR: You may
change the character of this option
further by incorporating either
bonus points for Tutoring and/or
self-Quizzing)
FINAL NOTE TO INSTRUCTORS:
In PSI mode instructors may also wish
to use peer-mentors, TA's, or other
forms of "supervision" for each
Certification Test as a form of
"progression management" as well as
verification that students aren't
cheating on certification tests. In
truly "self-paced" PSI course design,
instructors would also want to extend
the deadlines for all chapters to the
end of the course to accommodate
"self-paced" progression. If pacing
is important, then distributed
deadlines make an excellent way of
managing this aspect.
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© 2005 (AI)2,Inc.
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