Session B - Measuring learning in complex environments

Michael Timms, ACER

Technology offers the opportunity to enhance the learning experience through providing students with learning environments that bring to them other worlds outside the classroom. For example, the use of animations, simulations and augmented reality can help to show dynamic processes such as geological events over time, virtual chemistry laboratories or events from history in deeper and richer ways than are possible in textbooks. These technological tools also offer the chance to allow students to explore and manipulate the virtual environments that are created, bringing opportunities for learners to engage in the construction of knowledge rather than just receiving facts. But, as the learning environments become more complex and the number of paths that students can take through them increases, how can teachers be assured that their students are learning what was intended? How can we measure learning in such a way that ensures students get feedback at the right time and teachers remain in touch with how their students are progressing? This session explores how learning can be traced in complex learning environments that use technology and illustrates the techniques from several projects that have been developed to do that.

Abstract

Concurrent Session Block 1