Personalized learning in iSTART: Past modifications and future design

Computer-based learning environments (CBLEs) provide unprecedented opportunities for personalized learning at scale. One such system, iSTART (Interactive Strategy Training for Active Reading and Thinking) is an adaptive, game-based tutoring system for reading comprehension. This paper describes how...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of research on technology in education Vol. 52; no. 3; pp. 301 - 321
Main Authors McCarthy, Kathryn S., Watanabe, Micah, Dai, Jianmin, McNamara, Danielle S.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Eugene Routledge 02.07.2020
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
adaptive text selection
CAI
Computer Assisted Instruction
Difficulty Level
Educational Technology
Game Based Learning
High School Students
Individualized Instruction
Learning
Lifelong learning
Personalized learning
Program Effectiveness
Reading Comprehension
Reading disabilities
Reading Instruction
Reading Material Selection
Reading Programs
Reading Strategies
Reading Tests
Student Attitudes
Student Motivation
Technology Uses in Education
text difficulty
Tutoring
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Summary:Computer-based learning environments (CBLEs) provide unprecedented opportunities for personalized learning at scale. One such system, iSTART (Interactive Strategy Training for Active Reading and Thinking) is an adaptive, game-based tutoring system for reading comprehension. This paper describes how efforts to increase personalized learning have improved the system. It also provides results of a recent implementation of an adaptive logic that increases or decreases text difficulty based on students' performance rather than presenting texts randomly. High school students who received adaptive text selection showed increased sense of learning. Adaptive text selection also resulted in greater pre-training to post-training comprehension test gains, especially for less-skilled readers. The findings demonstrate that system-driven, just-in-time support consistent with the goals of personalized learning benefit the efficacy of computer-based learning environments.
ISSN:1539-1523
1945-0818
DOI:10.1080/15391523.2020.1716201