, associate professor of and fellow of the at the University of 91吃瓜, will lead a $1.4 million project funded by the Institute of Education Sciences to develop the intelligent diagnostic assessment program (i-DAP) for high school statistics education.听
With the four-year award, Cheng will work with Indiana high school students and teachers to develop and analyze data collected from the cloud-based program. The goal of the i-DAP is to provide real-time feedback for high schoolers in non-advanced placement (AP) statistics courses and improve student engagement and learning of statistics.
In discussing the tool, Cheng said, 鈥淭he i-DAP will allow students to see their results immediately, including individual strengths and weaknesses. Additionally, the program will also show teachers how their class performed as a whole so they can apply the results to adjust their own pace or teaching strategy.鈥�
To create the system, Cheng will work with 91吃瓜鈥檚 , a part of the , to develop elaborate back-end algorithms and use state-of-the-art data mining techniques to allow the tool to relay fine-grain feedback. One aspect of the program will connect students to learning module recommendations based on their test performance through deep-learning neural networks, similar to how streaming services recommend movies and television shows based on previously consumed content.
This project developed out of previous research funded by Cheng鈥檚 award from the National Science Foundation. With that support, Cheng created the AP Computerized Adaptive Testing program, a testing system aimed at assessing students taking AP statistics courses.听
However, Cheng and her team found that AP students are less likely to need the engagement piece of testing that will be important for the i-DAP system. Therefore, it is critical to understand whether and how providing real-time diagnostic feedback and instant recommendation can improve student engagement, and examine if improved student engagement translates into better learning outcomes.听
鈥淲ith this new project, we will be able to assess the diversity of ability that the non-AP population provides as well as identify how more engaged students are, since the AP population is already considered a highly motivated group of students,鈥� said Cheng. 鈥淎dditionally, it鈥檚 important that our assessment looks at a variety of students since statistics is a field that is vital to today鈥檚 labor force for both STEM and non-STEM 颈苍诲耻蝉迟谤颈别蝉.鈥澨�
Collaborators for the i-DAP include , data scientist at the CSR;听, director of the Center for Research Computing;听and , assistant professor of mathematics and statistics at Wright State University. , director of the Center for STEM Education,听serves as an advisory board member for this project.听
To learn more about Cheng and her research,听visit .听
Contact: Brandi Klingerman, research communications specialist,听91吃瓜 Research, 574-631-8183,听;听
Originally published by at on Oct.听15.