Computational workflows for assessing student learning

Abstract

The use of technology for instruction, and the enormous amount of information available for consumption, places a considerable burden on instructors who must learn to integrate appropriate student practices and learning assessment. The Pedagogical Workflows project is developing a novel workflow environment that supports efficient assessment of student learning through interactive generation and execution of various assessment workflows. We focus especially on how student discussion use can be combined with more traditional assessment data. In this paper, we present our initial assessment workflows, the initial feedback from instructors, and the user portal that is being developed for running the workflows. Inherent in the development of the workflows is an examination of what teachers think is important to learn about their students, a question that is central to every intelligent tutoring system. We anticipate that assessment workflows will become an important tool for instructors, researchers, and ITS development. © 2010 Springer-Verlag.