Cognitive Assessment in Coached Learning Environments
Carl Frederiksen and Janet Donin
Abstract
An approach to cognitive
assessment of problem-solving in complex computer-based tutorial
environments is described. The approach is based on studies of
expert tutoring and students' performance in natural tutoring
situations in specific domains such as engineering and statistics.
A model of expert tutors' knowledge in a domain of applied statistics
was developed and used as a basis for a web-based computer coach
that emulates human tutoring. Cognitive assessments are obtained
from records of students' actions as they learn to apply particular
components of the procedural knowledge required to solve problems
in the domain with the help of the computer tutor. Learning is
evaluated by studying changes in these records of performance
as students practice successive problem exercises. These assessments
can then be used subsequently to predict students' unassisted
performance in solving post-instruction transfer problems.
Copyright © AJER, the Faculty of Education, and the University
of Alberta, 2000.
Last revised: October 7, 2000.
Designed by G.H. Buck