PIs: Richard Baraniuk, Rice University (Award Details)
Elizabeth Marsh, Duke University (Award Details)

Investigators from Rice University and Duke University will build a Personalized Cyberlearning System, designed around three principles from cognitive science (retrieval practice, spacing, and enhanced feedback), that leverages advances in machine learning and makes use of an existing instructional content material and problem set database aimed at undergraduate engineering students. The system will use artificial intelligence methods to optimize practice and feedback for students. Research will seek to advance knowledge, in a real-world setting, about a range of issues concerning how feedback facilitates learning, how individual differences come in to play, as well as those more specifically aimed at the development of the learning technology system itself.

The project is important as part of the effort to harness the vast quantities of information on the web to personalize instruction for a wide range of learners. Moreover, the development of such cyberlearning technologies holds promise for opening up STEM education for motivated self-learners while also allowing access to a large volume of material for a range of students who might not otherwise have it.