National Science Foundation

Funded by the National Science Foundation, this project was a CRESST application of POWERSOURCE© research and tools to improve the math skills of Navy recruits. CRESST developed a formative-assessment-based math intervention providing easily exported prealgebra training for young adults, particularly those with histories of underperformance in mathematics.

For more information please contact:
Julia Phelan, Ph.D., Senior Researcher
Phone: 310-206-4998
Email: julia.phelan@ucla.edu

Principle-Focused ITS (PFITS), Arizona State University/Office of Naval Research

The Office of Naval Research has funded Arizona State University (ASU) to develop an authoring system that encourages and aids instructors in developing instruction that helps students learn domain principles and concepts deeply by asking them to solve problems by applying principles and concepts, not by copying examples or by applying problem schemas. CRESST is supporting ASU by developing baseline and experimental versions of an instructional unit, conducting an experiment comparing the two versions, and in an option task will formatively evaluate the authoring system as it is used by a Navy subject matter expert.

For more information please contact:
Greg Chung, Ph.D., Senior Researcher
Phone: 310-794-4392
Email: greg@ucla.edu

Adaptive Intelligent Tutors for STEM Learning in Newtonian Physics, BBN Technologies/Office of Naval Research

The Office of Naval Research has funded BBN Technologies to develop a lightweight, extensible intelligent tutoring system (ITS) infrastructure for middle and high school STEM learning that is a novel synthesis of recent advances in machine learning, cognitive modeling, integrated assessment, adaptation, and human-computer interaction. The ITS will dynamically adapt to the user while retaining the "fun factor" that is often missing from traditional didactic instruction, and will permit collection of human-computer interaction data for pedagogical research. CRESST will support BBN Technologies in developing a model-based approach to assessment in which tasks and measures map to the domain representation, which maps back to the cognitive demand and content representation. CRESST will also develop a scoring model that translates observations of student performance into scores that can be used to draw inferences about knowledge and/or skills. The model will include an information measurement scale, scoring criteria, performance descriptions of each criterion at each point on the scale, and sample responses that illustrate the various levels of performance.

For more information please contact:
Greg Chung, Ph.D., Senior Researcher
Phone: 310-794-4392
Email: greg@ucla.edu

GAMECHANGER, Office of Naval Research/Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

Funded by the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA)/ENGAGE, CRESST is participating in a collaboration to develop and evaluate educational games for the purpose of increasing young learners' understanding and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The collaborative CRESST project will ultimately produce innovative computer games with practical applications across early science curricula.

For more information please contact:
Noelle Griffin, Ph.D., Associate Director
Phone: 310-825-8605
Email: griffin@cse.ucla.edu

Research and Educational Program for Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority-Serving Institutions (HBCU/MI), California State University at San Bernardino/Office of Naval Research

This project is a collaboration among California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB), CRESST, and consultants Drs. Harold O'Neil and Robert Rueda of the University of Southern California's Rossier School of Education. The research will test the effectiveness of game play on the learning of solving equation concepts with students enrolled in a developmental math course at CSUSB. Game, data mining, and Bayesian network technologies developed by CRESST will be used to investigate the extent to which games can be used to support learning and affective outcomes in the context of a remedial math class.

For more information please contact:
Greg Chung, Ph.D., Senior Researcher
Phone: 310-794-4392
Email: greg@ucla.edu