Applying Perceptual and Adaptive Learning Technologies to Undergraduate Neuroanatomy

本计划旨在为国家利益服务，开发和测试基于感性和适应性学习原则的创新教学技术，以帮助本科生掌握神经解剖学。在神经科学研究和神经科学课程和专业的本科生入学人数持续爆炸式增长的时期，有效的神经解剖学教育对于提供一个共同的基础来理解大脑及其功能至关重要。然而，掌握神经解剖学涉及几种不同的学习形式，并提出了重大的教学挑战。感知学习指的是人们在获得特定领域的经验和实践时获取信息的方式的改进。先前的研究表明，基于交互式计算机的感知学习干预能够可靠地培养学生快速准确地识别和区分复杂结构、模式和关系的能力，例如在神经解剖学课程中遇到的那些。然而，知觉学习在正规教育中很大程度上被忽视了，因为在标准课程材料和教学格式中很少有最有效地促进它的学习条件。该项目计划将感知和适应性学习技术结合在一种称为感知适应性课件（PAC）的新格式中，在这种格式中，说明性教学的短周期与基于网络的适应性互动学习交织在一起，使学生能够推进和巩固他们的学习。该方法可以改善神经解剖学的学习，也为这些学习创新在其他STEM领域的应用提供了有价值的信息。该项目的目标是通过研究基于感知和适应性学习技术的结合是否能提高本科生学习神经解剖学的教学效果，从而产生新的知识。PAC干预将在两组本科生中反复开发、试点和测试，这些本科生在一所公立大学的不同学生群体中参加了行为神经科学高级课程的多个部分。该项目将实施一项对照实验设计，比较在神经解剖学课程的特定部分经历PAC干预的小组和在课程的相同部分经历正常讲座和实验室形式指导的小组。前/后评估将产生关于学生学习目标内容的定量数据。学生、助教和教师也将提供定性数据，以帮助设计和优化用户体验方面的功能，如导航、节奏、图形和交互界面。使用标准浏览器在笔记本电脑、台式电脑和平板电脑上运行的感知自适应课件代表了一种模型方法，可以很容易地扩展到其他STEM领域。该项目的研究结果将通过神经科学学会和本科神经科学学院的会议和出版物与教授神经解剖学或相关学科的教师分享。研究结果也将分发给对认知研究应用于教学和学习技术感兴趣的听众。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 developing and testing innovative instructional technologies based on well-established principles of perceptual and adaptive learning to help undergraduates master neuroanatomy. During a time when there has been a sustained explosion in both neuroscience research and in undergraduate enrollment in neuroscience courses and majors, effective neuroanatomy education is critically important in providing a common foundation by which the brain and its functions can be understood. However, mastering neuroanatomy involves several different forms of learning and poses significant instructional challenges. Perceptual learning refers to improvements in how people pick up information as they gain experience and practice in a given domain. Prior research shows that interactive computer-based perceptual learning interventions reliably develop students’ ability to quickly and accurately recognize and distinguish complex structures, patterns, and relationships, such as those that are encountered in neuroanatomy courses. However, perceptual learning has largely been ignored in formal education because the learning conditions that promote it most effectively are rarely available in standard course materials and instructional formats. This project plans to combine perceptual and adaptive learning technologies in a novel format known as Perceptual Adaptive Courseware (PAC), in which short cycles of expository instruction are interwoven with web-based adaptive interactive learning, enabling students to advance and consolidate their learning. The approach may improve learning in neuroanatomy and also provide valuable information regarding the applications of these learning innovations to other STEM domains.The project’s goal is to generate new knowledge by investigating whether enhancements based on this combination of perceptual and adaptive learning technologies produce improved instructional outcomes for undergraduates learning neuroanatomy. The PAC intervention will be iteratively developed, piloted, and tested across two cohorts of undergraduates enrolled in multiple sections of an upper-level course in behavioral neuroscience at a public university with a diverse student body. The project will implement a controlled experimental design comparing groups that experience the PAC intervention for a defined segment of the neuroanatomy curriculum to groups that experience instruction in normal lecture and lab formats for the same portion of the curriculum. Pre/post assessments will yield quantitative data on students’ learning of the targeted content. Students, teaching assistants, and instructors will also provide qualitative data to help design and optimize the user experience with respect to features such as navigation, pacing, graphics, and interactive interfaces. Perceptual Adaptive Courseware, which runs on laptops, desktop computers, and tablets using standard browsers, represents a model approach that can be readily extended to other STEM domains. Findings from the project will be shared with faculty who teach neuroanatomy or related disciplines through meetings and publications of the Society for Neuroscience and the Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience. Results will also be disseminated to audiences interested in applications of cognitive research to instruction and learning technology. 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.