Computer-based LED Learning Environments

Two systems have been developed that exploit LEDs for learning and instruction, ReMIS-CL and AVOW-Tutor.

ReMIS-CL

This is a discovery learning environment for the domain elastic collisions in physics. This is an important domain as both momentum and energy conservation laws are involved. The version of ReMIS-CL used in the evaluation studies (described below) has two LEDs, formular and table based representations which can be interactively manipulated by the user. There is also an animated simulation of the collisions More on ReMIS-CL

AVOW-Tutor

This is a tutoring system for electrical circuits that supports learning using AVOW diagrams. AVOW diagrams encode Ohms law, the Power law and Kirchoff's law. The user can interactively build conventional circuits and AVOW diagrams. The system automatically checks that the ciruit and diagram are consistent and when they are not tells the user why. AVOW-tutor is authorable; tutors can write excercises for students to solve.   More on AVOW-Tutor

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Evaluations of ReMIS-CL

Preliminary studies were conducted with an six undergraduate and graduate science students. In the pre-test

• Non of the subject successfully completed the quantitative problems using the conventional alegbraic approach (despite some having 1st class degrees in physics).
• Subjects used unsophisticated problem solving strategies, some resorting to guess and test when conventional algebraic approaches appeared to fail.

A discovery learning session on ReMIS-CL followed, lasting 60 minutes. A post-test was taken a week later. It was found that:

• With minimal instruction on the nature and form of the LEDs, subjects were able to use them for problem solving on ReMIS-CL
• In the post-test half the subjects successful used the LEDs for solving different classes of problem.
• Those subjects used novel LED based problem solving strategies that were expert-like; e.g. cross checking answers by alternative means.

Large Scale Study with Controls

This study involved approximately 100 first year physics undergraduates. There were three groups:

1. LED group who used the diagrammatic version of ReMIS-CL
2. Conventional group who use an different version ReMIS-CL that had algebraic formulas and a data table in place of the LEDs
3. Non intervention control group.

It was found that:

• LED subjects had significantly improved qualitative reasoning in the post-test compared to the pre-test.
• Neither the control nor the conventional groups improved in qualitative reasoning.

In contrast to the conventional system, ReMIS-CL with LEDs:

• enabled subjects examination of a greater number of configurations of collisions by allowing subjects quick percetually assess to the overall form of the configuration.
• facilitated a more thorough exploration of the space of possible configuration of collisions by making the relations among the variables explicit.

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Selected Publications

• Cheng, P. C.-H. (1996). Law encoding diagrams for instructional systems. Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education, 7(1), 33-74.
• Cheng, P. C.-H. (1996). Learning Qualitative Relations in Physics with Law Encoding Diagrams. In G. W. Cottrell (Eds.), Proceeding of the Eighteenth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 512-517). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.