Dissertation Talk: Supporting Instructional Design Learning via Overlay Design Tools

Seminar: Departmental | December 4 | 1:30-2:30 p.m. | Hearst Memorial Mining Building, 360 (Berkeley Institute of Design)

Speaker/Performer: Andy Carle, EECS Department

Sponsor: Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (EECS)

Recent efforts in computer-supported learning (MOOCs and lab-centric models) promise to significantly enhance the reach of quality course material. Some of these systems espouse “active learning” or “learner-centered design,” but use a haphazard collection of learning practices. Fully leveraging the opportunities presented by computer-assisted learning requires a more systematic approach, better understanding of best practices by instructors, and better tools for content design. This talk describes the PACT system (Pattern-Annotated Course Tool), which is designed to both facilitate learner-centered design and to serve as a learning system for instructors to acquire these best practices.

The key innovation in my approach is the annotated design artifact, a concrete representation of real design work that has been augmented with design pattern annotations. These annotations reveal the thought processes of the expert designers who made the artifacts and allow the artifacts to be used as learning tools by novice designers. I will present: (1) Virtual Design Apprenticeship, a framework for enabling design learning within design tools, (2) the information representation challenges involved in converting pattern descriptions into pattern annotations and my approach to solving them, and (3) the iterative design and evaluation of the PACT curriculum overlay design tool.

Event Contact: acarle@cs.berkeley.edu