David A. Joyner

MILA--S: generation of agent-based simulations from conceptual models of complex systems

Scientists use both conceptual models and executable simulations to help them make sense of the world. Models and simulations each have unique affordances and limitations, and it is useful to leverage their affordances to mitigate their respective limitations. One way to do this is by generating the simulations based on the conceptual models, preserving the capacity for rapid revision and knowledge sharing allowed by the conceptual models while extending them to provide the repeated testing and feedback of the simulations. In this paper, we present an interactive system called MILAfiS for generating agent-based simulations from conceptual models of ecological systems. Designed with STEM education in mind, this user-centered interface design allows the user to construct a Component-Mechanism-Phenomenon conceptual model of a complex system, and then compile the conceptual model into an executable NetLogo simulation. In this paper, we present the results of a pilot study with this interface with about 50 middle school students in the context of learning about ecosystems.

Scaling Expert Feedback: Two Case Studies

Traditionally, education relies on a linear relationship between enrollment and staff; rising enrollment dictates increases to staff with some expertise (such as teaching assistants, TAs) for evaluation. This relationship is expensive, so learning at scale has largely deemphasized expert evaluation and feedback. Two organizations, though, have used different models to scale up class size online while retaining this expert evaluation and feedback. In this paper, we analyze the methods these two organizations have used to increase enrollment while preserving scalability and feedback. We observe an academic program has scaled feedback with traditional TAs by relying on unique characteristics of its student body, while a commercial program has done so with a novel, network-based model. These successes show the potential of learning from experts at scale.

The Unexpected Pedagogical Benefits of Making Higher Education Accessible

Many ongoing efforts in online education aim to increase accessibility through affordability and flexibility, but some critics have noted that pedagogy often suffers during these efforts. In contrast, in the low-cost for-credit Georgia Tech Online Masters of Science in Computer Science (OMSCS) program, we have observed that the features that make the program accessible also lead to pedagogical benefits. In this paper, we discuss the pedagogical benefits, and draw a causal link between those benefits and the factors that increase the programs accessibility.

Move, Beam, and Check! Imagineering Tangible Optical Chess on An Interactive Tabletop Display

This article presents Tangible Optical Chess, a tangible version of Optical Chess, a strategy game implemented on an interactive tabletop display. We discuss the design and implementation of both systems and report our evaluation game play sessions and our observations during the open house demonstration events at our research center.

Congruency, Adaptivity, Modularity, and Personalization: Four Experiments in Teaching Introduction to Computing

In January 2017, Georgia Tech launched a new online section of its CS1301: Introduction to Computing class. The course, offered both as a for-credit course to on-ground students and as an open MOOC, built on four unique design principles: congruency, adaptivity, modularity, and personalization. In this short paper, we describe the background of the course, the definitions of these design principles, and their application to the course design.

Facilitating Authentic Reasoning About Complex Systems in Middle School Science Education

Abstract In order to tackle problems in the modern world, individuals must possess a strong ability to reason about and understand complex systems in a practical and useful way. Past research has indicated that experts and novices possess fundamentally different kinds of understanding of complex systems. Therefore, to adequately prepare students to address problems pertaining to complex systems, it is important to help them acquire an authentic expert- like understanding of these systems. We approach this problem from two angles: first, we create an interactive environment in which students may investigate complex systems in a manner similar to that of scientists and engineers; secondly, we embed metacognitive agents in the interactive environments such that the agents provide situated guidance towards expert-like understanding of complex systems. In this paper, we detail the design of these two systems, referred to as MILA and MeTA respectively, and the way in which they help students obtain a more authentic and advanced understanding of complex systems. We also briefly describe the deployments of these tools in a science summer camp for middle school students and preliminary results of students’ interaction with them.

Attitudinal Gains from Engagement with Metacognitive Tutors in an Exploratory Learning Environment

MILA–T (MILA–Tutoring) is constructed to give students explicit instruction on scientific modeling and inquiry, intending in part to help cultivate positive attitudes toward science. The results of a two-week controlled experiment using MILA–T in middle school classroom show a significant effect of MILA–T on students’ attitudes towards science.

Learning Functional Models of Aquaria: The ACT Project on Ecosystem Learning in Middle School Science

The ACT project is an ongoing collaboration among learning, cognitive, computing and biological scientists at Georgia Institute of Technology and Rutgers University, focusing on learning functional models of ecosystems in middle school science. In particular, ACT (for Aquarium Construction Toolkit) is an interactive learning environment for stimulating and scaffolding construction of Structure-Behavior-Function (SBF) models to reason about classroom aquaria. Initial results from deployment of ACT in several classrooms with a few hundred middle school children indicate statistically significant improvement in identification of the structure, behaviors and functions of classroom aquaria as well as appropriation of SBF modeling by some middle school teachers for modeling other natural systems. In this article, we summarize and review the main results from ACT on learning about SBF models of ecosystems in middle school science and describe self-regulated learning in ACT, while also looking ahead and outlining the design of a metacognitive ACT toolkit.

Evolution of an Integrated Technology for Supporting Learning about Complex Systems

In this paper, we describe the evolution of an interactive technology called the Ecological Modeling Toolkit (EMT) that supports learning about complex ecological systems in middle school science. Authentic learning of science is facilitated by imitation, rehearsal and understanding of real-world scientific practices such as observation, experimentation, problem formulation, hypothesis testing, and model construction and revision. We illustrate how the tools in EMT work together to support many real-world scientific practices such as model construction, simulation and revision, and scaffold others such as observation, problem formulation and hypothesis testing.

Squeezing the limeade: policies and workflows for scalable online degrees

In recent years, non-credit options for learning at scale have outpaced for-credit options. To scale for-credit options, workflows and policies must be devised to preserve the characteristics of accredited higher education---such as the presumption of human evaluation and an assertion of academic integrity---despite increased scale. These efforts must follow as well with shifting from offering isolated courses (or informal collections thereof) to offering full degree programs with additional administrative elements. We see this shift as one from Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) to Large, Internet-Mediated Asynchronous Degrees (Limeades). In this work, we perform a qualitative research study on one such program that has scaled to 6,500 students while retaining full accreditation. We report a typology of policies and workflows employed by the individual classes to deliver this experience.