Local, National, and International Impact U-Behavior: 2020 Update
The U-Behavior learning and teaching method continues to impact student study behaviors and how faculty utilize Canvas quizzes to help students learn course content.
What is U-Behavior?
The U-Behavior method reimagines the Canvas quiz, rebranding it to get students to rethink how they use the quiz tool. We rename quizzes as Retrieval Practice Activities and reward students for practice with them over time. In this method, students do not earn points for getting all the answers correct; rather, they earn points for practicing in ways that are optimal for learning.
How do students earn points?
C-ALT faculty have designed a unique visual-form learning analytic called the RPA Graph. This graph acts similarly to a Fitbit, Apple Watch or sleep tracker, except it reports to the student how they self-regulate their RPA study.
What have you found?
Studying practice behaviors from a variety of classes, we have found that most students do not use optimal study behavior.
Given the opportunity to self-regulate behavior, most students use quizzes sparingly and their behavior is driven by points (i.e., earning the maximum points) or the deadline (i.e., cramming just before an exam).
What impact have we had on behavior?
Using the U-Behavior method, we have seen significant changes in study behaviors. Most importantly, students praise the method for instruction that changes their understanding of learning behavior.
Where is U-Behavior being used?
We are working with both graduate and undergraduate courses at CSU.
Currently, U-Behavior is being deployed in:
- VMBS100: Introduction to Biomedical Sciences
- MIP300: General Microbiology
- MIP420: Medical and Molecular Virology
- EDOD651: On-Demand Learning–Improving Performance
- EDUC720: Human Learning, Cognition, and Motivation
What about research impact?
U-Behavior has earned local, national, and international recognition.
Local
The U-Behavior method was awarded:
- Provost’s Digital Learning Initiative grant
- College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences Teaching Academy
- Support grant for the VMBS100 implementation
In addition, a poster presented by Dr. Marcia Moraes at the College of Health and Human Sciences’ inaugural Research Day in March 2020 was awarded “Best Applied Research Project”.
International
The U-Behavior method has garnered significant recognition both at the national at international level.
In the past four years, the method has been recognized and awarded for “Best Applied Research Paper” at the Learning Analytics and Knowledge Conference.
What other significant recognition has U-Behavior received?
The nonprofit association EDUCAUSE selected the U-Behavior method as a significant learning technology including the method in the 2020 Horizon Report.
In the report, ECUCAUSE employed an international panel and a published methodology to identify and select technologies pushing the horizon. The U-Behavior method was one of six technologies selected and included in the category, “Elevation of Instructional Design, Learning Engineering, and UX Design in Pedagogy in Practice”.
Epistemic Network Analysis ENA: 2020 Update
C-ALT team member Dr. Marcia Moraes was one of four participants selected to attend the early career workshop at the inaugural International Conference on Quantitative Ethnography in 2019.
What did Dr. Moraes do at the conference?
During the conference, Dr. Moraes had the opportunity to deepen her understanding of Epistemic Network Analysis and Qualitative Ethnography, to meet several researchers and practitioners, and to discuss research ideas.
How did Dr. Moraes leverage that experience?
Following the conference, Dr. Moraes shared with the C-ALT team what she had learned, and the team began working on Discussion-Based ENA.
Initial findings from this research were presented at the College of Health and Human Sciences’ inaugural Research Day in March 2020.
Trackable Reasoning and Analysis for Collaboration and Evaluation Impact of TRACE: 2020 Update
C-ALT team members were principle investigators and key contributors on the Trackable Reasoning and Analysis for Collaboration and Evaluation project.
This research and development project was funded by the Intelligence Advanced Research Project Activity, under the CREATE Program.
What is TRACE?
TRACE is a web-based application aimed at improving reasoning through the use of crowdsourcing techniques that incorporated debate, analogical reasoning, and features of analysis of competing hypothesis.
What resulted from the project?
This work resulted in a patented TRACE tool that can be used to improve reasoning.
Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity CYCLES Games for Learning Impact on Game-play Analysis and Impact on Behavior Analysis
A research and development project funded by the Intelligence Advanced Research Project Activity under the Sirius Games Program, this was an interdisciplinary effort to design, develop, and test two video games for learning and training.
How did C-ALT contribute?
C-ALT led the way in designing for, collecting, and analyzing the behavioral usage data and analytics underlying both games. These were used to understand player engagement.
To learn more about the analytics-driven design approach to this project, please review our paper, Analytics-Driven Design: Impact and Implications of Team Member Psychological Perspectives on a Serious Games (SGs) Design Framework.
What was the impact?
This four-year project produced two video games: CYCLES Training Center and CYCLES Carnivale.
The work and the resultant publications impacted the understanding of how video games can be used to teach complex concepts, and how the situated nature of games can be harnessed to change complex behaviors.
CYCLES Carnivale game won top honors (Gold) at the International Serious Play Awards competition, an annual competition held by the Serious Play Association.