Computer Support for Studying at the Right Times

• In Event: Assessing Students Using New Learning Technologies

Abstract

The learning sciences offer increasingly effective, efficient and compelling ways to learn; yet education as practiced too rarely incorporates the resulting recommendations. I present Nudge, a web-­‐based software system that scaffolds metacognitive skills to help students study at appropriate times by restructuring the course syllabus into an interactive task list with reminders and light accountability. The design of Nudge integrates an HCI design process with learning principles from educational theory. I report on this development process and the results of a pilot evaluation of Nudge in which students who used CourseCheck when first offered performed significantly better on the following exams and students who used it later performed significantly worse.

Authors

• Turadg Aleahmad, Carnegie Mellon University

• Kenneth R. Koedinger, Carnegie Mellon University

• John Zimmerman, Carnegie Mellon University