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CONTENTS:
We can get abstract elsewhere. These scenarios might be five to ten years into the future.
Scenario 1: Taking a Regular Course Using FLS
One morning in the five to ten years, a student connects to the Flexible Learning System (FLS) at an institution of higher education. She intends to register next semester in a Computer Science course. This is a standard credit-bearing course, and the student wants to get an early start and then to supplement the normal class sessions. FLS and the student establish a schedule of bi-weekly forty-five-minute sessions over a period of 1-1/2 semesters. On Thursdays the student will be on campus for another course and so able to log in from an on-campus computer lab, but on Tuesdays the student will work from home. During this initial session, the student establishes a preference for learning first by watching an animated sequence illustrating principles. Unfortunately the faculty developing FLS are still working on this popular feature, so the student's second choice is to read an example that illustrates computer algorithms in every-day situations. The student establishes that subsequent methods will be, in order, (1) trying an example, (2) reading teaching materials, and (3) trying additional examples. Of course, the student can override this default order and the weekly schedule on a session-by-session basis. FLS suggests taking the prerequisite test now, and the student agrees. FLS assembles a test using problem "templates" with slots for nouns, verbs and numbers. FLS fills the slots on a random basis, generating unique examples that no one has seen before in exactly this form. The test identifies a deficiency in the arithmetic of polynomials. The student chooses to have this material incorporated into the tutoring. FLS offered the alternative approaches of studying this topic before starting Computer Science or studying the topic just before it comes up in the Computer Science course.
During all of this interchange, FLS has been evaluating the student's responses. The student sometimes hesitates before responding, even for personal information, and makes frequent errors and corrections. FLS quietly "boosts" the user-computer interface, using more icons and restricting the lists of options from which to choose. The student's response improves. FLS provides a calculator and "scratch paper" tools for the student to use in working out answers, gaining insight into her cognitive processes. Also, FLS detects that the student hesitates even longer over problems with decimals and fractions, and changes to integer examples. These symptoms, together with a mediocre grade record in mathematics, indicate low confidence, so FLS provides enhanced positive reinforcement for correct and nearly-correct answers.
During the course sessions, FLS examines the student's performance against a model of an expert, identifies specific areas where improvement is needed, and tutors the student in these areas. FLS reevaluates the user interface, moving towards a faster interface that places more responsibility on the learner. Once the student's confidence with integer-based problems improves, FLS works in problems involving decimals and fractions, with very brief tutoring where the student has difficulty.
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Scenario 2: Repackaging an Existing Course
In an area business, an engineer assigned to a new job needs a refresher in trigonometry, normally part of a Pre-Calculus course. The engineer needs immediate help, so he logs into FLS and arranges for this part of the course to be excerpted and presented right now. The engineer chooses to review the principles and work three examples. The answers have few errors. FLS evaluates these as based in arithmetic rather than trigonometry, and so informs the engineer, who agrees with the diagnosis. The engineer enters two examples from his job into problem templates and uses the FLS tutoring and scratch paper tools to work through the problems. In response to an FLS query, the engineer gives FLS permission to use one of the examples with other students. Satisfied with his mastery of the performance objectives, the engineer completes the session evaluation dialogue and signs off the system.
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Scenario 3: Remediation
FLS also provides tutoring in algebra and complex numbers for a student facing a Mathematics Proficiency Exam. After looking at the results of a practice version of the test, the student chooses weekly one-hour sessions, increasing their frequency as the date of the next Proficiency Exam approaches. With the ability to log into FLS from work, home or campus, the student reasons that the number of sessions can be increased even further if needed. During this first tutoring session, the student has an "aha" experience and sees an alternate method for solving a problem. The student uses the FLS "Note" facility to send a message back to the material developers suggesting this approach.
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Scenario 4: Behind the Scenes
FLS saves these, and all sessions. The faculty developing FLS examine the saved results. On the one hand, delays in student responses can indicate too large a step in the content, and therefore a "mechanical" problem with the course script. On the other hand, delays and "wrong answers" can confirm or deny hypotheses about student cognitive processes thereby demanding a more fundamental restructuring. Users also send direct messages back to the developers, asking additional questions and commenting on their experience with FLS. The FLS "scratch paper" tools afford an additional source of data for cognitive modeling. Feedback from learners indicates a need for streamlining the "boosted" version of the user interface. Earlier research studies based on FLS data lead to a refined hypothesis about generalizing from examples to form principles. Additional steps are inserted into the Computer Science material to test the hypothesis. If the hypothesis works in practice, these changes will be made in other content areas as well. Finally, consistent student problems on one of the test problems point back to an ambiguity in the performance objectives, and the objective is changed to remove the ambiguity. Since FLS serves up course elements from networked computers, the benefits of these changes start with the very next learners using the system.
At the early point described here, FLS applies only to supplementing traditional credit courses, and to non-credit tutoring; it does not yet offer credit courses on its own. But after another semester or two of trials as a supplemental tutor, FLS will be used on a self-paced basis in a credit course, with students able to refer to the instructor of record for problems.