Disrupting the rote learning loop: CS majors iterating over learning modules with an adaptive educational hypermedia

Abstract

The rote learning problem has plagued the education systems of developing world since long. To name a few, improperly designed assessments, teachers’ authority, rewarding verbatim answers, sheer class sizes, and individual learner differences are amongst the most notable mediators. The authors report on the design and development of an adaptive educational hypermedia, which disrupts the rote learning loop by hitting a few of the aforementioned reasons. The reported system provides a personalized learning experience to each learner, adapting on the basis of cognitive and learning styles. Further, the assessments are designed in a way that they loop each failed learning via variated paths, hence eliminating chances of rote learning. Moreover, the failed perturbations are traced back to the problematic domain segment for further knowledge acquisition. In-situ evaluations of the system with end-users (real students of Bachelor of Science in Computer Science) reveal a difference between control and experimental groups. The effect size is however moderate.