Third Annual Workshop on A/B Testing and Platform-Enabled Learning Research
Steven Ritter (Carnegie Learning, Inc.)
Neil Heffernan (Worcester Polytechnic Institute)
Joseph Jay Williams (University of Toronto)
Derek Lomas (TU Delft - Industrial Design Engineering)
Ben Motz (Indiana University)
Debshila Basu Mallick (Rice University)
Klinton Bicknell (Duolingo)
Danielle McNamara (Arizona State University)
Rene F. Kizilcec (Cornell University)
undefined More Authors (External organisation)
More Info
expand_more
Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.
Abstract
Learning engineering adds tools and processes to learning platforms to support improvement research. One kind of tool is A/B testing, which is common in large software companies and also represented academically at conferences like the Annual Conference on Digital Experimentation (CODE). A number of A/B testing systems focused on educational applications have arisen recently, including UpGrade and E-TRIALS. A/B testing can be part of the puzzle of how to improve educational platforms, and yet challenging issues in education go beyond the generic paradigm. For example, the importance of teachers and instructors to learning means that students are not only connecting with software as individuals, but also as part of a shared classroom experience. Further, learning in topics like mathematics can be highly dependent on prior learning, and thus A or B may not be better overall, but only in interaction with prior knowledge. In response, a set of learning platforms is opening their systems to improvement research by instructors and/or third-party researchers, with specific supports necessary for education-specific research designs. This workshop will explore how A/B testing in educational contexts is different, how learning platforms are opening up new possibilities, and how these empirical approaches can be used to drive powerful gains in student learning. It will also discuss forthcoming opportunities for funding to conduct platform-enabled learning research.