Distance Learning
Texas A&M Prof Develops AI for Adaptive Online Learning
A professor at Texas A&M University is developing artificial intelligence (AI) technology for creating adaptive online courses.
Noboru
Matsuda, an associate professor of cyber STEM education in the
Department of Teaching, Learning and Culture at Texas A&M is
currently the principal investigator on three related research projects
funded by National Science Foundation grants. In September 2016, Matsuda received his latest grant for a
project that aims to develop a browser-based development environment to
let teachers author their own adaptive online courses without
specialized training. The technology will also enable researchers to
gather data about how students learn from adaptive online courses.
The
project is rooted in Matsuda's previous research, which studied what
happens when middle school students are asked to teach a computer how to solve a
computer equation. "At the beginning, they don't know how to solve
equations and teach the agent very incorrectly," said Matsuda in a
Texas A&M news story. He found that the students learned from
teaching computers. "Learning how to solve equations by teaching is an
interesting phenomenon, but the data clearly shows students actually
learn by teaching."
Matsuda's proposed cyber learning platform
for adaptive online courses will support the creation of cognitive
tutors — intelligent tutoring systems that provide feedback to students
as they solve problems — so teachers and developers can integrate those
cognitive tutors into online courses. "You have the interface you made,
you already told the computer how to solve it and now the computer can
use that same interface to teach students how to solve problems,"
Matsuda said.
Within five years, Matsuda said he hopes to develop an adaptive online course to help high school math students prepare for the SAT.
About the Author
Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at leilameyer@gmail.com.