Research Initiation Grant: Student-directed differentiated learning in college-level engineering education

差异化学习，即根据每个学生的优势和劣势调整教育材料的提供，已经在K-12教育中得到了关注，但在高等教育中却没有。部分原因是讲师的工作量很大，他们需要根据个人情况设计材料交付。虽然这对年幼的孩子来说是合理的，但高等教育的学生是成年人，他们需要为自己的教育道路负责，特别是考虑到他们需要坚持终身教育的努力。在这项研究中，我们调查了支持学生选择自己的个性化学习计划的工具和方法，包括通过形成性家庭作业的频繁反馈，提供不同难度选择的家庭作业，以及在线参考视频库。这一计划旨在为准备水平较低的学生提供额外的支持，同时为背景较强的学生提供具有挑战性的任务。我们希望这种方法有助于提高不同教育背景和可能的社会经济地位的学生的保留率和成功率，同时为准备水平较高的学生提供更刺激的体验。虽然拟议的研究主要针对传统的基于课堂的课程，但所采用的以学生为导向的方法使其与需要学生发起的教学计划选择的环境相关，例如mooc和终身学习。这个项目有两个目的。首先，我们打算开发技术，为成人学习者创建一个以学生为导向的差异化教学材料框架。在这一部分中，我们研究了一个综合的形成性作业、分层作业和分层参考视频库的总体框架。该计划的要素包括形成性评估，它提供有关学生准备水平的信息，以帮助后续决策；分层作业菜单，帮助学生在他们认为最合适的水平上练习和发展技能；还有一个在线视频材料库，旨在根据学生认为最需要帮助的内容创建定制的复习课。我们的兴趣在于如何最佳地开发这些工具，以及如何在课程设计中结合它们。其次，我们调查了在此框架内制定个性化学习计划时影响学生决策的因素。本研究的主要重点是分析工程专业学生如何利用形成性评估中的信息以及他们对自己准备程度的感知来做出选择，以及这如何影响他们的整体学习体验及其结果。

Differentiated learning, i.e. adjusting educational material delivery according to the strengths and weaknesses of each student, has gained traction in K-12 education, but not in higher education. Part of the reason is the significant workload imposed on the instructor, who needs to design material delivery on an individual basis. While this is reasonable for younger children, higher education students are adults that need to take charge of their own educational pathway, especially in view of the need for them to sustain life-long education efforts. In this study, we investigate tools and methodologies that support students into choosing their own individualized study plan, including frequent feedback though formative homework assignments, homeworks that offer options at different levels of challenge, and online reference video libraries. This aims at providing additional support to students with lower readiness levels, while still offering challenging tasks to students with stronger backgrounds. We expect this approach to help increase retention and success rates for students of varied educational background and possibly socio-economic status, while at the same time providing a more stimulating experience for students with higher readiness levels. While the proposed research is mainly directed towards a traditional classroom-based course, the student-driven approach adopted makes it relevant to environments where there is a need for student-initiated instruction plan choices, such as MOOCs and life-long learning.The aim of this project it twofold. First, we intend to develop techniques for creating a framework for student-directed differentiated instruction material for adult learners. For this part, we investigate a general framework of combined formative assignments, tiered homeworks and a tiered reference video library. Elements of this plan include formative assessment, which provides information on student readiness levels in order to help with subsequent decisions; tiered homework menus to help students practice and develop skills at the level they perceive as most appropriate; and a library of online video material aimed at creating customized recitation sessions based at what students think they need most help with. Our interest is both on how to optimally develop these tools, and how to combine them within course design. Second, we investigate the factors that influence student decisions when creating an individualized study plan within this framework. The main focus of this research is to analyze how engineering students use information from the formative assessment together with their perception of their readiness level in order to make choices, and how this affects their overall learning experience and its outcomes.