ExplainIt: Improving Student Learning with Explanation-based Classroom Response Systems

本项目旨在为国家利益服务，创建ExplainIt，这是一个创新的基于解释的课堂响应系统，通过使用自然语言处理来分析学生对STEM现象的解释，为STEM本科生和教师提供实时支持。该项目将通过向每个学生提供实时的形成性反馈，并向教师提供实时摘要，从而促进对如何改善本科STEM教育的理解，以便他们能够快速调整其教学以适应学生的当前需求。该项目将对本科STEM教育产生重大的理论和实践进展。这将使我们更深入地了解学生如何通过基于解释的课堂反应系统学习，包括学习收益和学生参与度的提高。它还将导致一套有效的教学支持原则，用于解释丰富的课堂互动，这些原则将广泛适用于多个STEM学科和不同的机构环境。总之，这些进步将从根本上改善本科STEM教育。这个项目有三个目标。首先是创建以ExplainIt为基础的课堂响应系统。第二是在适应性地支持学生学习和参与ExplainIt方面产生实证基础的研究结果。第三是开发在线资源，使教师能够轻松地将ExplainIt整合到他们的教学中。每年，生物学、计算机科学和物理学的讲师都会对ExplainIt软件的设计、开发和评估做出贡献。该项目将通过在广泛的本科STEM课程中评估ExplainIt来调查改善学生学习的条件。解释：将有6000多名学生参加入门课程、低年级课程和高年级课程的评估。评估将有双重重点：评估ExplainIt对学生STEM学习（概念知识、解决问题）的影响，以及评估ExplainIt对提高学生STEM参与（STEM自我效能感、STEM兴趣）的影响。项目团队将通过在生物教育、计算机科学教育和物理教育会议上的研讨会和演讲，以及网络研讨会和社交媒体，发展ExplainIt社区的实践。NSF IUSE: EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。通过参与学生学习轨道，该计划支持有前途的实践和工具的创建，探索和实施。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project aims to serve the national interest by creating ExplainIt, an innovative explanation-based classroom response system that provides real-time support to undergraduate STEM students and instructors by using natural language processing to analyze student explanations of STEM phenomena. The project will advance understanding of how to improve undergraduate STEM education by providing real-time formative feedback to each individual student and real-time summaries to instructors so they can quickly adapt their instruction to the current needs of their students. The project will produce significant theoretical and practical advances in undergraduate STEM education. It will lead to a deeper understanding of how students learn with explanation-based classroom response systems, including the learning gains and improvements in student engagement. It will also lead to a set of effective instructional support principles for explanation-rich classroom interactions that will be broadly applicable in multiple STEM disciplines and in diverse institutional settings. Together, these advances will yield fundamental improvements in undergraduate STEM education.Three goals guide this project. First is to create the ExplainIt explanation-based classroom response system. Second is to produce empirically grounded research results on adaptively supporting student learning and engagement with ExplainIt. Third is to develop online resources that enable instructors to easily integrate ExplainIt into their teaching. Each year, instructors in biology, computer science, and physics will contribute to the design, development, and evaluation of the ExplainIt software. The project will investigate conditions under which improved student learning occurs by evaluating ExplainIt in a wide range of undergraduate STEM courses. ExplainIt will be evaluated with more than 6,000 students in introductory courses, lower-division courses, and upper-division courses. The evaluation will have a dual focus: evaluating ExplainIt’s effects on students’ STEM learning (conceptual knowledge, problem solving), and evaluating ExplainIt’s effects on improving students’ engagement in STEM (STEM self-efficacy, STEM interest). The project team will grow the ExplainIt community of practice through workshops and presentations at conferences on biology education, computer science education, and physics education, as well as through webinars and social media. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.