Educational-app engine for representing conceptual understanding using student populations' electronic response latencies

• US 9,368,042 B2
• Filed: 02/19/2014
• Issued: 06/14/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/19/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pearson Education Incorporated (Pearson plc)
• Original Assignee: Pearson Education Incorporated (Pearson plc)
• Inventors: Lynch, Jay
• Primary Examiner(s): Gishnock, Nikolai A
• Application Number:
  US14/184,242
• Publication Number:
  US 20150235564A1
• Time in Patent Office: 846 Days
• Field of Search: 434/322, 434/323, 434/350, 434/362
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/06 Foreign languages with audible presentation of material to be studied G09B5/04
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/00 Electrically-operated educational appliances working with questions and answers G09B7/00; simulators G09B9/00; advertising or displaying in general G09F
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/02 with visual presentation of the material to be studied, e.g. using film strip
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/06 with both visual and audible presentation of the material to be studied
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/08 providing for individual presentation of information to a plurality of student stations
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/00 Electrically-operated teaching apparatus or devices working with questions and answers mechanically operated G09B3/00; computing arrangements G06F
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/02 of the type wherein the student is expected to construct an answer to the question which is presented or wherein the machine gives an answer to the question presented by a student
• 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: G09B 7/077 different stations being capable of presenting different questions simultaneously
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/08 characterised by modifying the teaching programme in response to a wrong answer, e.g. repeating the question, supplying further information
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 706/927 Education or instruction
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

Systems and methods can track, at a group level, times for responding to educational questions. A set of users is identified as users enrolled in an academic course. A set of responses is accessed (e.g., after being received). Each response in the set of responses is one submitted via an electronic user device associated with a user in the set of users and is one submitted in response to one or more educational questions. For each response in the set of responses, an accuracy of the response is identified and a response time for the response is identified. The response time is indicative of a time between presentation of the one or more questions and submission the response. The identified response times for at least two responses in the set of responses are aggregated. A representation of the aggregation is caused to be presented.

Claims

1. An educational-app system for tracking, at a group level, times for responding to educational questions, the educational-app system comprising:

a performance assessment engine that includes one or more processors and that, at an electronic instructor device;

detects, over a network, each of a set of a user devices, wherein each of the set of electronic user devices and the electronic instructor device is located in a physical classroom, and wherein each of the set of electronic user devices and the electronic instructor device includes a processor;

for each of the set of electronic user devices, and, via execution of an educational application;

facilitates a pairing between the electronic instructor device and the electronic user device;

detects an input from an instructor indicating that the educational question has been communicated or is to be communicated;

in response to detecting the input, causes a plurality of response options to be displayed at the electronic user device;

constantly monitors for one or more incoming communications that include an identifier of a response to facilitate detection of a response time corresponding to the response;

receives a wireless communication, via the pairing, from the electronic user device that includes an identifier of a response submitted to the educational question;

automatically identifies an answer, from amongst a set of potential answers, identified in the response;

automatically detects a time at which the wireless communication was received;

calculates a response time based on the time at which the wireless communication was received and a time at which the educational question was presented; and

generates response data that include the identifier of the response, the response time and an identifier of a user in the set of users;

an aggregator that;

aggregates responses from the response data into a set of responses, such that the set of responses includes a response to the educational question identified in a wireless communication received from each of a plurality of electronic user devices in the set of electronic user devices;

identifies, via execution of the educational application on the electronic instructor device, a subset of the set of responses for which a same answer was identified; and

generates, via execution of the educational application on the electronic instructor device, a response-time statistic based on the response times identified for the subset of the set of responses; and

an interface engine that automatically displays of a representation of the response-time statistic.

2. The educational-app system for tracking, at a group level, times for responding to educational questions as recited in claim 1, wherein the representation indicates a quantity of responses in the subset of the set of responses for which the same answer was identified.

3. The educational-app system for tracking, at a group level, times for responding to educational questions as recited in claim 1, wherein the interface engine causes the representation of the response-time statistic to be presented on the electronic instructor device.

4. The educational-app system for tracking, at a group level, times for responding to educational questions as recited in claim 1, wherein:

each of the subset and the response-time statistic is updated in real-time as new wireless communications are received that identify the same answer based on response times determined for the new communications; and

the representation is updated to facilitate presentation of a representation of the updated response-time statistic.

5. The educational-app system for tracking, at a group level, times for responding to educational questions as recited in claim 1, wherein the interface engine further avails the one or more educational questions for presentation on devices of users in the set of users.

6. The educational-app system for tracking, at a group level, times for responding to educational questions as recited in claim 1, wherein:

the performance assessment engine further, for each of the set of electronic user devices;

receives a second wireless communication, via the pairing, from the electronic user device that includes an identifier of a second response submitted to one or more second education questions;

identifies a second answer, from amongst a second set of potential answers, identified in the second response;

detects a second time at which the second wireless communication was received;

determines a second response time based on the second time at which the second wireless communication was received and a second time at which the one or more second questions were presented; and

generates second response data that include the identifier of the second response and the second response time;

the aggregator further;

aggregates second responses from the response data into a set of second responses;

identifies a second subset of the second set of responses for which a same second answer was identified; and

generates a second response-time statistic based on the second response times identified for the subset of the second set of responses; and

the representation further represents the second response-time statistic.

7. The educational-app system for tracking, at a group level, times for responding to educational questions as recited in claim 1, wherein:

the one or more educational questions comprises a plurality of educational questions,

each response in the set of responses includes a plurality of answers, each answer in the plurality of answers corresponding to an educational question in the plurality of educational questions, and

the response time for each response in the set of responses being indicative of a time between presentation of at least part of the plurality of educational questions and submission of the plurality of answers.

8. The educational-app system for tracking, at a group level, times for responding to educational questions as recited in claim 1, wherein at least part of the performance assessment engine is at a remote server and wherein the interface engine is at the electronic instructor device.

16. The educational-app system for tracking, at a group level, times for responding to educational questions as recited in claim 1, wherein the same answer corresponds to a correct answer.

17. The educational-app system for tracking, at a group level, times for responding to educational questions as recited in claim 1, wherein:

the aggregator further;

identifies a second subset of the set of responses for which a same second answer was identified; and

generates a second response-time statistic based on the response times identified for the second subset of the set of responses; and

the interface engine further facilitates a presentation of a representation of the second response-time statistic.

18. The educational-app system for tracking, at a group level, times for responding to educational questions as recited in claim 1, wherein the response-time statistic includes a mean, median, mode, standard deviation, range or distribution of the response times.

9. A computer-implemented method for tracking, at a group level, times for responding to educational questions, the method comprising:

identifying a set of users as users enrolled in an academic course;

detecting, at an electronic instructor device over a network, each of a set of a user devices, wherein each of the set of electronic user devices and the electronic instructor device is located in a physical classroom, and wherein each of the set of electronic user devices and the electronic instructor device includes a processor;

for each of the set of electronic user devices, and, via execution of an educational application on the electronic instructor device;

facilitating a pairing between the electronic instructor device and the electronic user device;

detecting an input from an instructor indicating that an educational question has been communicated or is to be communicated;

in response to detecting the input, causing a plurality of response options to be displayed at the electronic user device;

constantly monitoring for one or more incoming communications that include an identifier of a response to detect a response time corresponding to the response;

receiving a wireless communication, via the pairing, from the electronic user device that includes an identifier of a response submitted to the educational question;

automatically identifying, using one or more processors, an answer from amongst a set of potential answers identified in the response;

automatically detecting, using the one or more processors, a time at which the wireless communication was received;

calculating, using the one or more processors, a response time based on the time at which the wireless communication was received and a time at which the educational question was presented; and

generating response data that include the identifier of the response, the response time and an identifier of a user in the set of users;

aggregating responses from the response data into a set of responses, such that the set of responses includes a response to the educational question identified in a wireless communication received from each of a plurality of electronic user devices in the set of electronic user devices;

identifying, via execution of the educational application on the electronic instructor device, a subset of the set of responses for which a same answer was identified;

generating, via execution of the educational application on the electronic instructor device, a response-time statistic based on the response times identified for the subset of the set of responses; and

automatically displaying a representation of the response-time statistic.

10. The method for tracking, at a group level, times for responding to educational questions as recited in claim 9, wherein the representation indicates a quantity of responses in the subset of the set of responses for which the same answer was identified.

11. The method for tracking, at a group level, times for responding to educational questions as recited in claim 9, wherein:

each of the subset and the response-time statistic is updated in real-time as new wireless communications are received that identify the same answer based on response times determined for the new communications; and

the representation is updated to facilitate presentation of a representation of the updated response-time statistic.

12. The method for tracking, at a group level, times for responding to educational questions as recited in claim 9, further comprising:

for each of the set of electronic user devices;

receiving a second wireless communication, via the pairing, from the electronic user device that includes an identifier of a second response submitted to one or more second education questions;

identifying a second answer, from amongst a second set of potential answers, identified in the second response;

detecting a second time at which the second wireless communication was received;

determining a second response time based on the second time at which the second wireless communication was received and a second time at which the one or more second questions were presented;

generating second response data that include the identifier of the second response and the second response time;

aggregating second responses from the response data into a set of second responses;

identifying a second subset of the second set of responses for which a same second answer was identified; and

generating a second response-time statistic based on the second response times identified for the subset of the second set of responses,

wherein the representation further represents the second response-time statistic.

13. The method for tracking, at a group level, times for responding to educational questions as recited in claim 9, further comprising:

transmitting, from a server, the representation to the electronic instructor device, wherein automatically displaying the representation of the response-time statistic includes displaying the representation at the electronic instructor device.

19. The method for tracking, at a group level, times for responding to educational questions as recited in claim 9, wherein the same answer corresponds to a correct answer.

20. The method for tracking, at a group level, times for responding to educational questions as recited in claim 9, further comprising:

identifying a second subset of the set of responses for which a same second answer was identified;

generating a second response-time statistic based on the response times identified for the second subset of the set of responses; and

facilitating a presentation of a representation of the second response-time statistic.

14. A computer-program product tangibly embodied in a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, including instructions configured to cause one or more data processors to perform actions including:

identifying a set of users as users enrolled in an academic course;

detecting, at an electronic instructor device over a network, each of a set of a user devices, wherein each of the set of electronic user devices and the electronic instructor device is located in a physical classroom, and wherein each of the set of electronic user devices and the electronic instructor device includes a processor;

for each of the set of electronic user devices, and, via execution of an educational application on the electronic instructor device;

facilitating a pairing between the electronic instructor device and the electronic user device;

detecting an input from an instructor indicating that an educational question has been communicated or is to be communicated;

in response to detecting the input, causing a plurality of response options to be displayed at the electronic user device;

constantly monitoring for one or more incoming communications that include an identifier of a response to detect a response time corresponding to the response;

receiving a wireless communication, via the pairing, from the electronic user device that includes an identifier of a response submitted to the educational question;

automatically identifying an answer from amongst a set of potential answers identified in the response;

automatically detecting a time at which the wireless communication was received;

calculating a response time based on the time at which the wireless communication was received and a time at which the educational question was presented; and

generating response data that include the identifier of the response, the response time and an identifier of a user in the set of users;

aggregating responses from the response data into a set of responses, such that the set of responses includes a response to the educational question identified in a wireless communication received from each of a plurality of electronic user devices in the set of electronic user devices;

identifying, via execution of the educational application on the electronic instructor device, a subset of the set of responses for which a same answer was identified;

generating, via execution of the educational application on the electronic instructor device, a response-time statistic based on the response times identified for the subset of the set of responses; and

facilitating a presentation of a representation of the response-time statistic.

15. The computer-program product for tracking, at a group level, times for responding to educational questions as recited in claim 14, wherein:

each of the subset and the response-time statistic is updated in real-time as new wireless communications are received that identify the same answer based on response times determined for the new communications; and

the representation is updated to facilitate presentation of a representation of the updated response-time statistic.