ASSESSABLE NATURAL INTERACTIONS IN FORMAL COURSE CURRICULUMS

• US 20100316985A1
• Filed: 06/15/2009
• Published: 12/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/15/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Lloyd, Clifford Huw
• Granted Patent: US 8,433,237 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 434/353
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/00 Electrically-operated teaching apparatus or devices working with questions and answers mechanically operated G09B3/00; computing arrangements G06F

Abstract

A natural interactions academic course designer system and method that allows an educator to integrate a natural interactions forum (such as discussion boards, blogs, and collaborative wikis) into a formal curriculum. Embodiments of the system and method include a natural interactions integration module, which allows an educator to select a type of natural interaction forum and attaches a rubric, and a natural interactions provisioning module that creates the forum, determines the participants, and the learners to be assessed. Embodiments of the system and method also include an assessment module that assesses a validated learner using one or more of three different metrics. These metrics include a participation metric, a tagging metric, and a natural language processing metric. The assessment module then creates a raw score from the metrics used. Embodiments of the system and method also include a learner tracking module that generates a single final score for the assignment.

Claims

1. A method implemented on a computing device having a processor for designing an academic course, comprising:

using the computing device having the processor to perform the following;

selecting a natural interaction forum that an educator who is responsible for the academic course desires to use to assess a learner'"'"'s knowledge of a topic taught in the academic course, where the learner is enrolled in the academic course;

attaching a rubric to the selected natural interaction forum, where the rubric is a template that aids the educator in assessing the learner;

assigning to the learner a natural interaction assignment that is used to assess the learner'"'"'s knowledge of the topic based on the learner'"'"'s participation in the natural interaction forum; and

integrating a final score of the learner on the natural interaction assignment into a final gradebook for the academic course to design an academic course that grades both on a learner'"'"'s performance on the natural interaction assignment and on traditional forms of subjective assessment.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising provisioning the selected natural interaction forum to those learners that have been assigned the natural interaction assignment.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

limiting participation in the selected natural interaction forum to those learners who are enrolled in the academic course and who have been given the natural interaction assignment; and

creating a list of participants in the selected natural interactions forum that will be assessed.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising creating a list of learners to assess that includes those learners who are enrolled in the academic course and who have been given the natural interaction assignment.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising assessing a performance of the learner given the natural interaction assignment to generate assessment results.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising using at least one of a participation metric, or a tagging metric, or a natural language metric to assess the learner and generate the assessment results.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising overlaying statistical data on the natural interaction forum to measure a participation of the learner in the natural interaction forum to obtain participation numerical data.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

creating a communication network visualization that graphically visualizes a communication network of the natural interaction forum; and

displaying the communication network visualization to the educator.

9. The method of claim 5, further comprising creating tags for the learner'"'"'s posts in the natural interaction forum that matches information in the learner'"'"'s posts to topics in the rubric.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising accumulating each of the tags associated with the learner to define the tagging metric for the learner.

11. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

using a natural language technique to examine a learner'"'"'s post in the natural interaction forum for specific topics and keywords contained in the rubric; and

defining results of the examination with the natural language technique as the natural language metric.

12. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

computing a single score from the assessment results; and

normalizing the single score to obtain the final score of the learner on the natural interaction assignment.

13. A method implemented on a computing device having a processor for determining a learner'"'"'s final grade in an academic course, comprising:

using the computing device having the processor to perform the following;

selecting a type of natural interaction forum that an educator who is a teacher of the academic course can use to assess a learner'"'"'s knowledge of subject matter taught in the academic course;

attaching a rubric to the selected natural interaction forum such that the rubric can be used as a benchmark when assessing the learner'"'"'s knowledge;

assigning to the learner a natural interaction assignment that uses the selected natural interaction forum;

assessing the learner'"'"'s knowledge based on the learner'"'"'s posts in the selected natural interaction forum to generate assessment results for the learner;

computing a single score from the assessment results corresponding to a learner'"'"'s grade on the natural interaction assignment;

integrating the learner'"'"'s grade on the natural interaction assignment into a formal gradebook kept by the educator; and

producing a final grade for the learner in the academic course based on the learner'"'"'s grade on the natural interaction assignment and other forms of subjective assessment.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

provisioning the selected natural interaction forum by using a security model to allow participation in the selected natural interaction forum only by those learners who are enrolled in the academic course and who have been given the natural interaction assignment; and

creating a list of learners in the academic course to assess from participants in the selected natural interaction forum.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising creating a list of learners in the academic class to assess such that the list includes only those learners who are enrolled in the academic course and who have been given the natural interaction assignment.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

overlaying statistical data on the selected natural interaction forum that measures the learner'"'"'s participation in the selected natural interaction forum to obtain participation numerical data;

creating a communication network visualization that graphically illustrates a communication network of the selected natural interaction forum;

combining the participation numerical data and the communication network visualization to obtain a participation metric; and

assessing the learner'"'"'s knowledge using the participation metric.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

tagging a learner'"'"'s posts in the selected natural interaction forum with tags that match information in the learner'"'"'s posts to topics in the rubric;

accumulating each of the tags associated with the learner to define a tagging metric; and

assessing the learner'"'"'s knowledge using the tagging metric.

18. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

using a tagging a natural language processing technique to examine learner'"'"'s post in the selected natural interaction forum for specific topics and keywords that are contained in the rubric;

defining results of examination using the natural language processing technique as a natural language processing metric; and

assessing the learner'"'"'s knowledge using the natural language processing metric.

19. A computer-implemented method for integrating a natural interaction forum into a formal curriculum for an academic course, comprising:

selecting a natural interaction forum to use in an assessment of a learner'"'"'s knowledge of subject matter taught in the academic course;

attaching a rubric to the selected natural interaction forum, wherein the rubric is a benchmark of that an educator can use to assess a learner'"'"'s posts in the selected natural interaction forum;

assigning to the learner a natural interaction assignment that uses the natural interaction forum;

provisioning the selected natural interaction forum to the learner and other participants;

seeding the natural interaction forum with a topic for discussion by participants in the selected natural interaction forum;

assessing a learner'"'"'s knowledge of the topic to generate assessment results by using any combination of one or more of a participation metric, a tagging metric, and a natural language processing metric;

computing a single score corresponding to a learner'"'"'s grade on the natural interaction assignment using the assessment results; and

integrating the learner'"'"'s grade on the natural interaction assignment into a formal gradebook kept by the educator along with other forms of subjective assessment.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 19, further comprising assessing a learner'"'"'s knowledge of the topic using the participation metric that includes statistical data corresponding to any combination of a number of times the learner started a thread, a number of times the learner ended a thread, a number of times the learner had another participant in the selected natural interaction forum respond to the learner'"'"'s post, a number of times the learner responded to another participant'"'"'s post, and a complexity of the learner'"'"'s post.