WO2002003359A1

WO2002003359A1 - Computer-based teaching method

Info

Publication number: WO2002003359A1
Application number: PCT/AU2001/000752
Authority: WO
Inventors: Thomas Spira; Petra Greyling
Original assignee: Xmaths Limited
Priority date: 2000-06-30
Filing date: 2001-06-25
Publication date: 2002-01-10
Also published as: AU2002216775A1; AUPQ851400A0

Abstract

Computer-based tuition is provided in electronic form to users, typically through the internet or on CD-ROM. The tuition is of a modular nature, consisting of discrete units, each of which may comprise several lessons. The units are categorised into levels, and the units at each level are further categorised into topics. Each user undergoes initial diagnostic testing, and the tuition units provided to a user are automatically selected and sequenced in response to the diagnostic testing of the particular user. Subsequent tuition is also dependent on the results of further diagnostic testing of the user. The tuition can be universally accessed, yet is automatically customised to suit the needs of individual users.

Description

"COMPUTER-BASED TEACHING METHOD"

THIS INVENTION relates to an improved method of providing computer-based tuition. In particular, the invention is directed to a method of providing customised tuition in mathematics through the Internet or other communications network, or through electronic data storage devices such as compact discs.

BACKGROUND ART

There are various known forms of electronic delivery of interactive educational services. For example, there are known programs which provide educational information for children, often in an entertaining manner. These programs can be purchased on compact disc or downloaded from a website on the Internet. The known programs are generally designed to provide educational information at predetermined levels. For example, the programs may provide mathematical exercises for third grade students. These programs are normally "fixed" in their content and are not customised for any particular student.

Although the known interactive programs may include question- and-answer exercises, these exercises are typically used only to provide a numerical assessment of the student's performance at a particular level and/or to determine whether the student proceeds to a higher level. However, the content of the educational program at each level is generally fixed and independent of the assessment. In other words, the assessment of a student's performance in a question-and-answer section is normally used only to determine whether the student progresses to a next level, but does not affect the content of the educational information and/or testing provided at the next level.

It is well recognised that students have strengths and weaknesses in different disciplines, and these strengths and weaknesses vary from student to student. Some students may have natural ability or aptitude for mathematical or analytical type subjects, while other students may perform better in the humanities or creative subjects. Even within a particular subject, such as mathematics, some students may have strong numerical skills, yet have difficulty with dimension and measurement aspects. Ideally, teachers should provide customised education to the students, concentrating on their individual strengths and weaknesses. Due largely to their automated nature, known educational computer programs are unable to provide tuition specifically customised for individual students.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of delivering computer-based instruction or tuition which can be customised automatically.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In one broad form, the invention provides a method providing computer-based tuition to individual users, comprising the steps of: initially providing diagnostic testing of a user to assess the strengths and/or weaknesses of the user, customising tuition automatically in response to the result of the diagnostic testing, and delivering the customised tuition to the user at least partially in electronic form.

Typically, the tuition is delivered primarily by software through the internet or similar electronic communication network. This allows many users to access a common site which provides the tuition, yet have individualised instruction. Alternatively, the computer-based tuition may be provided by software on a compact disc or other data storage device.

In one embodiment of the invention, the tuition is provided in the field of mathematics. However, similar methodology may be used in providing computer-based tuition in other fields or subjects.

The customisation of the tuition may involve the selection, sequencing, content and/or delivery of lessons to the individual users responsive to the results of the diagnostic testing of the respective users.

Preferably, the sequence of course work is adaptive in that the choice of lessons is determined not only by the initial diagnostic testing but also the ongoing performance of the student/user, as analysed by further testing.

In order that the invention may be more fully understood and put into practice, embodiments thereof will now be described.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

In one embodiment of the invention, computer-based tuition is provided via a website on the Internet. The website has two sections, namely (i) a magazine-type section which is accessible to all visitors to the site; and

(ii) a tuition section consisting of graded and sequenced lessons in mathematics which can be accessed only by subscribers, through their computer and internet connection. (A subscriber is normally a fee-paying user). The second section also includes a diagnostic test.

Before being provided with the tuition in mathematics for example, a subscriber is required to take the diagnostic test online. The test normally comprises a long sequence of questions, each of which matches a particular concept or skill in a composite of Australian and worldwide mathematics syllabuses. These questions are normally provided with multiple choice answers. Each question relates to a teaching module or unit contained in the tuition section of the website.

Each subscriber is required to enter his/her age, year of schooling and country in which the subscriber is receiving or has received formal education. These factors are used by the controlling software on the website to determine the starting question of the diagnostic test and/or the particular questions to be answered.

As the subscriber answers the questions in the diagnostic test, a record is built up of which answers have been answered correctly, which have been answered incorrectly, and which have been passed over by the subscriber. This record provides a diagnostic analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the subscriber, and is used by the controlling software to determine automatically the initial sequence of tuition modules or units to be provided to the subscriber via the internet.

Typically, the controlling software is preprogrammed to select tuition modules or unit appropriate for the level of competency reached by the subscriber in the diagnostic test. Moreover, the controlling software is preprogrammed to select more lessons in those areas or subjects in which the individual student has performed less satisfactorily in the diagnostic testing. This selection is varied over time by the controlling software as the subscriber progresses and undertakes further diagnostic testing. That is, the sequence of course work is adaptive, and is determined automatically by the controlling software in response to the ongoing performance of the subscriber student, including ongoing testing. Each tuition module or lesson is typically presented in the form of episodes in a narrative. Each mathematical concept or skill is introduced in an experience of the characters in the narrative. These characters can be animated, and the software may involve innovative simulation techniques. Once the concept or skill has been introduced and explained, drill and practice exercises are provided for the subscriber student.

As the subscriber student progresses through the tuition, he/she is able to access all previous and current teaching modules or lessons, but cannot access other modules and lessons until a progress test for the current module and related topics has been answered, and the answers assessed by the controlling software. The results of these later, ongoing, tests determine the adaptations of the teaching sequence.

A specific example of the tuition method of this invention to the teaching of mathematics will now be described.

Mathematics is a sequenced study, by virtue of its historic development, its deductive logical structure and the growth of intellectual ability of humans moving from concrete operational thinking to abstract thinking. Throughout the world, school syllabuses in mathematics generally follow the same scope and sequence. In the primary years of schooling, the main areas are numeration, how to write numbers, addition and subtraction, space and shape, multiplication and division, and fractions and decimals. Other areas, such as chance and data and measurement, depend upon a sound understanding of the five main topics. Secondary school mathematics also has several main areas, in addition to the primary ones mentioned above. These areas, or subjects, include algebra, trigonometry, statistics, calculus, and some more modern work in discrete mathematics. In this particular example of the computer-based tuition method, the sequence of mathematics tuition comprises a number of units. These units are typically categorised into levels, and the units at each level are further categorised into topics. Each unit in a particular topic may have several lessons. The unit is an amount of work that is delivered to a student in response to an identified gap in the student's knowledge resulting from an incorrect answer in a test. Thus, the units are made available to the individual student as and when the diagnostic testing shows that it is appropriate to do so. The individualised curriculum is initially determined by the first diagnostic test, and further adapted on the results obtained by subsequent testing.

Example Of A Unit

Children of about ten years of age in their fifth year of schooling will usually be expected to have mastered the nine times multiplication table. The first diagnostic test for a fifth year student or ten year old includes one or more questions to test knowledge of the nine times table. For example, the question may ask "which number is a multiple of nine?", and the student is given the possible answers of 27, 20, 16 and 15 from which to choose. A student who fails to answer this question correctly will have unit 050401 automatically recorded as being in the list of units prescribed for the student, along with any other units similarly identified as being required. The unit notation 050401 indicates that the unit is from level 5, topic 4 (multiplication and division), subdivision 1. The subdivision, unit 050401 , is divided into six lessons, all of which are devoted to teaching the nine times table.

An algorithm is used for setting the individualised sequence of units based on the initial diagnostic test. One such algorithm is as follows:

As the student chooses answers to the multiple choice questions, record "1" for a question correctly answered, "0" for a wrong answer and "x" for a question not answered at all. For each question wrongly answered, or passed over, divide the number of the question by 10 and record the quotient and remainder, e.g. 44 = 10 x 4 + 4 = divisor x quotient + remainder.

Add 1 to the quotient, e.g. for question 44, quotient +1 = 5 which determines the level; remainder = 4, which determines the topic. A student missing Question 44 needs unit 050401 , since this is the unit tested by question 44.

The following units, unit 050402 to unit 050407 containing material on multiplication and division which would be met by students at the same stage of their schooling as the 9 times table will also be put on this student's schedule.

The first unit delivered to a student will be determined by the lowest level at which the student makes mistakes and then in the order of the numbering of the topics, but with not more than four units in the same topic together in the sequence, to provide some diversity.

For example a student form whom units 040401 , 030201 , 030501 , 040101 are indicated by diagnostic testing as being required, would get, in order, unit 030201 , unit 030202, unit 030203, unit 030204, unit 030501 , unit 030502, unit 030503, unit 030504, unit 030205, unit 030206, unit 030207, unit 030505, unit 030506, unit 030507. At the completion of all the prescribed level 3 units, the student will do another diagnostic test to see if he/she still needs the level 4 units already on his/her schedule or whether he/she can move on more rapidly.

The method of tuition in the individual lessons may involve interactive games or situations, or role playing. In one embodiment, the students are required to act out the tasks of a group of fictional young people exploring an imaginary universe. Examples of such lessons are given below. Lesson 1 in unit 050401 , in teaching the 9 times table, introduces young people who are aboard a spacecraft and sight a plane named Sembilan ("nine" in Bahasa Indonesia). They access their on-board computer and find some information about this planet such as that its mass is one ninth the mass of Earth and hence its gravity is one ninth the gravity of Earth. (This leads, in later lessons in this unit, to questions on measurement and the use of a calculator to multiply and divide by 9. These are all practical, if hypothetical, questions). In order to land on this planet, Sembilan, they are told by the computer that the landing code involves multiples of 3, which is the only prime factor of 9. The young people (and the students) revise their knowledge of the 3 times table, of multiples and of prime numbers, in interactive games played on their on-board computer.

The young people (the students) key in the landing code of multiples of 3 into a Remote Drive Controller and land on Sembilan. Lesson 1 is primarily revision.

Lesson 2 in unit 050401 begins with the young people on the surface of the planet, Sembilan, where their dog demonstrates that he can jump nine times as far as on Earth and so marks out multiples of 9 along a number line. The young people return to the spacecraft and use the on-board computer to simulate the dog's leaps on the number line and to find again the multiples of 9. This lesson concludes with a test on the computer in which the student answers questions on the 9 times table with the multiples of 9 showing on the number line. Thus the student can find the answers to such questions as 6 x 9 without, as yet, having committed the 9 times table to memory.

Lesson 3 in unit 050401 requires the students to use a calculator which appears on the on-board computer screen to solve various problems about length, height and time (sporting records) arising from the differences in gravity between Sembilan and Earth.

Lesson 4 in unit 050401 deals with effecting repairs to the spacecraft by tightening arrays of bolts. There are 9 bolts to be repaired in each row of the array and these are counted out by the young people, again demonstrating and reinforcing multiples of 9. As before the young people, and the students, then return to the spacecraft and use the on-board computer to effect the remaining repairs in interactive activities, again counting and discovering the numbers of dots (bolts) in arrays of 9. Lesson 5 in unit 050401 takes one of the young people and the dog, exploring a cave on Sembilan, meeting up with a monster, and deciphering engravings and paintings on the cave walls. He rescues the dog, and escapes, by solving problems related to the number 9. This episode is expanded and becomes a "comic strip" in the magazine section of the web site.

Lesson 6 in unit 050401 is a review of what has been taught in this unit, with more games and puzzles and explanations of what was learnt in the cave. The spacecraft finally lifts off from Sembilan when a code based on multiples of 9 is entered by the young people (the student) into the remote control module.

The method of teaching is therefore largely discovery, by problem solving and by animated and interactive drill in "practical" situations.

The website can also transmit audio information such as a sound track to the subscriber's computer with the lessons, e.g. to aid students memorise tables and formulae.

There may be more than 200 units in the primary work, each related to syllabus content and objectives from a range of Education Department syllabuses worldwide. The above is only one example of a unit.

For the secondary units (and lessons) the methodology is largely the same for the early years but involves a more formal and abstract approach for students in the final years of secondary schooling.

Where appropriate the students will be asked to download materials for modelmaking and hands-on experience.

Students may work through a unit of mathematics as many times as is necessary to fully understand the concept being taught. All answers are worked out in full. Students correct their own answers at the end of a lesson, or at the end of a unit, and therefore ensure that they do not repeat their mistakes. Regular testing ensures that students do not proceed with material at a new level until they have mastered the material at an existing level.

The modular nature of the tuition allows students to focus on areas of weakness, or fast track to more challenging levels at their own pace, irrespective of their age or school year.

The method of this invention provides computer-based tuition which can be universally accessed, yet is automatically customised to individual users. The tuition comprises individual teaching units or modules. The units may be in the form of narratives, interactive scenarios and/or role playing. The controlling software determines or selects the particular units to be provided to each user and their order. The particular sequence of teaching units provided to a user is dependent on initial diagnostic testing of the user to assess his/her strengths and/or weaknesses, as well as ongoing performance in the units and/or further diagnostic testing. The tuition is adaptive to the particular student, and a sequenced record is developed for each individual student from the testing.

The magazine section of the website contains puzzles (with prizes or rewards), games, historical insights and articles of interest to parents and children. Although these are of an entertaining nature, they also have a serious purpose in mathematical tuition. The magazine section can be updated at regular intervals. In addition, there will be a continuing story or narrative to provide motivation or incentive for subscriber students to return frequently to the website. In an alternative embodiment, the computer-based tuition is provided through electronic data storage devices, such as CD-ROMs. Initially, the student obtains a CD-ROM containing a diagnostic test. The CD-ROM is inserted in the student's computer and a unique serial code found on the CD- ROM package is entered. The student completes the diagnostic test and then submits the results of the test to the tuition provider, either via the internet or other electronic network, by facsimile, or mail. The test results are analysed by the controlling software on the computer of the tuition provider, which selects the appropriate starting modules or lessons for the student. These are then sent to the student in electronic form, typically on CD-ROM. The CD- ROM may also be accompanied by additional material, such as printed material and/or an audio cassette. The student may also receive the score achieved on the diagnostic test, as well as a report, in graphical form, indicating the student's strengths and weaknesses as indicated by the diagnostic test. This embodiment of the invention is similar to the first embodiment described above, but allows the tuition package to be sold in shops in the form of an introductory CD-ROM.

The foregoing describes only some embodiments of the invention, and modifications which are obvious to those skilled in the art may be made thereto without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the following claims. For example, the computer-based tuition of this invention may be applied to subjects other than mathematics.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A method providing computer-based tuition to individual users, comprising the steps of: initially providing diagnostic testing of a user to assess the strengths and/or weaknesses of the user, customising tuition automatically in response to the result of the diagnostic testing, and delivering the customised tuition to the user at least partially in electronic form.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the tuition is delivered to the user through an electronic network.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the tuition is delivered to the user via a data storage device.

4. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the tuition is modular in nature and comprises a plurality of units containing one or more lessons.

5. A method as claimed in claim 4, wherein the step of customising the tuition includes the selection and/or sequencing of units or lessons in response to the results of the diagnostic testing.

6. A method as claimed in claim 4, wherein the units are categorised into levels, and the units at each level are further characterised into topics.

7. A method as claimed in claim 4, wherein at least some of the lessons are provided in the form of episodes in a narrative.

8. A method as claimed in claim 4, wherein at least some of the lessons involve interactive scenarios and/or role playing by the user.

9. A method as claimed in claim 4, wherein the step of automatically customising the tuition in response to the diagnostic testing is performed by an algorithm which determines the unit(s) to be included in the tuition in response to whether questions in the diagnostic testing are answered correctly, incorrectly or passed over by the user.

10. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the diagnostic testing is provided via a website on the internet.

11. A method as claimed in claim 1 , including the step of delivering further tuition to the user, the further tuition being customised automatically in response to further diagnostic testing of the user.

12. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the tuition relates to mathematics.

13. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the step of providing diagnostic testing includes providing a diagnostic test on a portable data storage device.

14. A method of providing tuition in modules to a student, comprising the steps of: providing a diagnostic test to a student, automatically determining the tuition to be provided to the student on the basis of the results of the test as undertaken by the student, including automatically selecting the level and/or sequence of tuition modules on the basis of the results, delivery the selected tuition modules to the user.

15. A method as claimed in claim 14, wherein the diagnostic test and tuition are provided at least partially in electronic form for use on a computer.