This is an expertise exchange in the CIRCLS’23 Expertise Exchange session
Session Leaders: John Stamper, Carnegie Mellon University; Aditi Mallavarapu, Digital Promise Global; Alejandra J. Magana, Purdue University
As advances in computational methods pervade benefits for educators and learners, their potential to support or extend existing educational research methods to improve and design new technology has been prominent. Computing tools and methods offer an opportunity to supplement qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods used in educational research by facilitating experiment design and deployment, affording the analysis of larger samples, integrating heterogeneous data types, and identifying patterns or causal relationships in data. Furthermore, computing methods and tools can aid throughout the entire research and design pipeline in all stages, from design conception, implementation, experiment design, data collection, data analysis, results interpretation, and reporting of the findings.
In this session, we will explore three different ways in which computing tools and methods can support researchers and designers in different stages of the process and at multiple scales. The first presentation will focus on how a web-based tool can support researchers in large-scale experimental design across learning environments and scenarios. The second presentation will describe how learner interaction data analyses afforded the identification of conceptual topics within learners’ interactions that could be used by researchers and learning technologists to fine-tune the design of a simulated dynamic museum exhibit. Finally, the third presentation will discuss how researchers integrated video, audio, and text data to identify and characterize small group interactions to aid the educator with their facilitation.
Panelists and participants will discuss and share other experiences and techniques that can be used for supporting education research at any stage of the research cycle, leading to the discussion of the opportunities and challenges offered by these novel technologies for supplementing education research.
