Enhancing online problems through instructor-centered tools for randomized experiments

Abstract

Digital educational resources could enable the use of randomized experiments to answer pedagogical questions that instructors care about, taking academic research out of the laboratory and into the classroom. We take an instructorcentered approach to designing tools for experimentation that lower the barriers for instructors to conduct experiments. We explore this approach through DynamicProblem, a proof-ofconcept system for experimentation on components of digital problems, which provides interfaces for authoring of experiments on explanations, hints, feedback messages, and learning tips. To rapidly turn data from experiments into practical improvements, the system uses an interpretable machine learning algorithm to analyze students' ratings of which conditions are helpful, and present conditions to future students in proportion to the evidence they are higher rated. We evaluated the system by collaboratively deploying experiments in the courses of three mathematics instructors. They reported benefits in reflecting on their pedagogy, and having a new method for improving online problems for future students.