Remote computer-assisted professionally supervised teaching system

• US 5,957,699 A
• Filed: 12/22/1997
• Issued: 09/28/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Scientific Learning Corp. (Carnegie Learning, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Scientific Learning Corp. (Carnegie Learning, Inc.)
• Inventors: Miller, Steven L., Jenkins, William M., Merzenich, Michael M., Peterson, Bret E., Tallal, Paula
• Primary Examiner(s): Cheng, Joe H.
• Application Number:
  US08/995,680
• Time in Patent Office: 645 Days
• Field of Search: 434/118, 434/236-238, 434/247, 434/307 R, 434/322, 434/323, 434/335, 434/350, 434/359, 434/362, 434/365, 382/164, 382/191, 382/318, 706/927, 705/1, 705/10, 707/517, 707/530, 600/300, 600/544, 600/545, 128/905, 128/920, 623/66, 482/900-903
• US Class Current: 434/350
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/0053 Computers, e.g. programming
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/14 with provision for individual teacher-student communication
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/04 characterised by modifying the teaching programme in response to a wrong answer, e.g. repeating the question, supplying a further explanation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 706/927 Education or instruction

Abstract

A student user of a client computer system uses a teaching process to promote development of cognitive skills of the student and a supervisor uses a second client computer to remotely monitor the progress of the student. The teaching process presents various types of stimuli to the student and records student response data which correspond to the stimuli. In addition, the teaching process forms evaluation data from the student response data where the evaluation data represents a correlation between the student response data for respective stimuli and predetermined correct response data for respective stimuli. Furthermore, the teaching process modifies its own behavior according to the evaluation data to thereby tailor the behavior of the teaching process to the cognitive abilities of the student. The student response data is uploaded to a global student database which is accessible to a supervisor user. The supervisor requests student response data from the global student database and presents the student response data to the supervisor for analysis. The supervisor can use such analysis in direct consultation with the student at a later date or can recommend changes in the behavior of the teaching process to more effectively encourage development of the cognitive ability of the student.

Claims

1. A method for facilitating supervision of a user of a computer process executing within a training computer system, the method comprising:

presenting stimuli to the user;

receiving user response signals generated by the user by physical manipulation of one or more user input devices in response to the stimuli;

storing, in a user response database, user response data representing the user response signals;

forming evaluation data representing a correlation between the user response data and predetermined correct response data for the stimuli;

storing the evaluation data in a server computer system;

receiving, in the server computer system, an analysis request from a supervisor computer system; and

in response to the analysis request, sending the evaluation data to the supervisor computer system.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of storing the evaluation data comprises:

storing the evaluation data in the training computer system; and

uploading the evaluation data from the training computer system to the server computer system.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the step of uploading is performed in response to signals generated by the user.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

sending the user response data to the supervisor computer system in response to the analysis request.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

modifying the stimuli according to the evaluation data.

6. A computer system for facilitating supervision of a user of a computer process executing within the computer system, the computer system comprising:

a training computer which includes a teaching process which, when executed, performs the steps of;

presenting stimuli to a user;

receiving user response signals generated by the user by physical manipulation of one or more user input devices in response to the stimuli;

storing, in a user response database, user response data representing the user response signals;

forming evaluation data representing a correlation between the user response data and predetermined correct response data for the stimuli; and

sending the evaluation data to a server computer system for storage therein;

a server computer which includes a server process which, when executed, performs the steps of;

receiving, in the server computer system, an analysis request from a supervisor computer; and

in response to the analysis request, sending the evaluation data to the supervisor computer.

7. The computer system of claim 6 wherein the teaching process, when executed, performs the additional step of:

storing the evaluation data in the server computer.

8. The computer system of claim 6 wherein the step of sending is performed in response to signals generated by the user.

9. The computer system of claim 6 wherein the server process, when executed, performs the additional step of

sending the user response data to the supervisor computer system in response to the analysis request.

10. The computer system of claim 6 wherein the teaching process, when executed, performs the additional step of:

modifying the stimuli according to the evaluation data.

11. A method for supervising a user of a computer process executing within a training computer system, the method comprising:

downloading user response data through a server computer network from a user response data database stored within a server computer system, wherein the user response data is generated by the user in response to stimuli presented to the user by the training computer system and further wherein the user response data is uploaded through a training computer network from the training computer system to the user response data database stored within the server computer system; and

analyzing the user response data using a server computer system to assess a condition of the user.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

altering a course of consultation in accordance with the assessed condition of the user.

13. The method of claim 11 whereon the training and server computer networks are the same computer network.

14. A method for training a user of a computer process executing within a training computer system, the method comprising:

presenting stimuli which have at least one characteristic to the user;

receiving user response signals generated by the user by physical manipulation of one or more user input devices in response to the stimuli;

storing, in a user response database, user response data representing the user response signals;

changing the at least one characteristic of the stimuli in accordance with the user response data,

receiving configuration data from a server computer system operatively coupled to the training computer system through a computer network,

re-presenting the stimuli with the changed at least one characteristic to the user in a manner at least partially specified by the configuration data;

receiving additional user response signals generated by the user by physical manipulation of the one or more user input devices in response to the stimuli with the changed at least one characteristic; and

storing, in the user response database, additional user response data representing the additional user response signals.

15. A method for facilitating training of a user of a computer process executing within a training computer system, the method comprising:

presenting, stimuli to the user;

receiving user response signals generated by the user by physical manipulation of one or more user input devices in response to the stimuli;

storing, in a user response database, user response data representing the user response signals;

forming evaluation data representing a correlation between the user response data and predetermined correct response data for the stimuli; and

sending the evaluation data to a server computer system for storage in a server database such that the evaluation data can be retrieved from the server database and transferred to a supervisor computer system in response to a request from the supervisor computer system for the evaluation data.

16. A method for facilitating training of a user of a computer process executing within a training computer system, the method comprising:

receiving, from a training computer system, evaluation data which represent a correlation between (i) user response data which in turn represent user generated response signals in response to stimuli and (ii) predetermined correct response data for the stimuli;

storing the evaluation data in a server database in a server computer system;

receiving an analysis request from a supervisor computer system; and

in response to the analysis request, sending the evaluation data to the supervisor computer system.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising:

analyzing the evaluation data to determine a desired change in behavior of the computer process;

forming configuration data which prescribes the desired change; and

sending the configuration data to the training computer system such that the computer process exhibits the desired change.