Author: scupelli

Paper presentation @ Viking PLoP 2017

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March 14, 2017 10:53 AM

Peter Scupelli will present a paper at the Viking Conference on Pattern Languages of Programs (Viking PLoP) 2017 in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.

The conference has long roots going back to 2002 when VikingPLoP was arranged for the first time in Helsingor, Denmark. As Vikings used to travel around Europe, this year the conference heads on the shores of the Baltic Sea. VikingPLoP calls for papers on patterns and pattern languages, and papers on applying patterns.

Inventado, P.S. & Scupelli, P.: Using Contextual Learning-Environment Features to Identify Design Pattern Appropriateness

Abstract:

Pedagogical design patterns offer high-quality solutions to problems in the educational domain. Design patterns are generally written in a way that makes them applicable to multiple contexts, but how reusable are pedagogical design patterns? Over the past three years, we have tried to adapt existing design patterns and write new patterns specifically to enhance feedback in an intelligent online learning system for Math called ASSISTments. However, this has proved to be difficult because there appear to be features of learning environments that call for patterns that are either too general or too specific. For example, design patterns whose context involves interpreting learners’ misconceptions may be easy for teachers in traditional classroom settings, but difficult for intelligent learning systems because algorithms that predict misconceptions are currently imperfect. In this paper, we identify contextual learning-environment features and investigate how they might affect the appropriateness of design patterns to a given learning environment.

Last updated: 5:46 pm

Paper presentation @ EuroPLoP 2017

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March 14, 2017 11:09 AM

Paul Inventado will present a paper at the 22nd European Conference on Pattern Languages of Programs (EuroPLoP) 2017 in Kloster Irsee, Bavaria, Germany.

EuroPLoP is the premier European conference on patterns and pattern languages. Design patterns are a unique and effective way to capture and share expertise, tacit knowledge and research findings.

Inventado, P.S., Scupelli, P., Heffernan, C. & Heffernan, N.: Feedback Design Patterns for Math Online Learning Systems

Abstract:

Increasingly, computer-based learning systems are used by educators to facilitate learning. Several learning systems have been developed for the Math domain, which have resulted in significant improvements in student learning. Feedback provision is one of the key features in Math learning systems that contribute to its success. We have recently been uncovering feedback design patterns as part of a larger pattern language for Math problems and learning support in online learning Systems. In this paper we present three feedback design patterns developed from the application of the data-driven design pattern (3D2P) methodology on a large educational data set collected from actual student data in a Math online learning system. These design patterns can help teachers, learning designers, and other stakeholders construct effective feedback for interactive learning activities that facilitate student learning.

Last updated: 5:45 pm

Presentation@2nd Annual Winter School Design Summit

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January 25, 2017 3:26 PM

Peter Scupelli gave a keynote talk on “How might design educators teach to Transition Design?” at The Glasgow School of Art’s 2nd Annual Winter School Design Summit in Scotland.  The theme of this year’s summit was Innovation from Tradition, and explored the relationship between culture and economy, between design and its consumption, as a means of formulating alternative economic and social arrangements for living, exemplified by rural living and a non-industrialized economy.  The summit hoped to turn a network of known entities into a fledgling community, to shift pedagogies into share practices and to establish a platform for future exchanges.

Students and faculty from KADK Copenhagen and KISD Cologne, the PhD cohort of Konstfack Stockholm and Glasgow School of Art’s PGT (Postgraduate Taught) Masters in Design Innovation as well as their PGR (Postgraduate Research) students participated.

Abstract:

How might design educators transition their courses to educate the next generations of designers to transition design to achieve sustainable futures? Design educators are caught between competing challenges: first, teaching well-established design traditions based on craft and making; and second, training students to situate their artifact making within transitional times in a volatile and exponentially changing world. Design educators can navigate such tensions  by linking the core of their discipline in relation to an expanding periphery where multiple disciplines interact. Teaching to transition design introduces a interesting teaching and learning design challenges. While the first formal presentation of Transition Design by Terry Irwin, Cameron Tonkinwise, and Gideon Kossoff occurred in 2013, there were many conversations among faculty and students leading to up to it. In this paper, I describe five courses that I taught at the Carnegie Mellon University School of Design from 2011 to 2016. Through this case study, I describe how one newly hired faculty member began to integrate the new vision for the School of Design based on Transition Design in the courses I taught to undergraduates and graduate students. The new Undergraduate, Graduate and Doctoral curriculum were deployed in fall semester 2014. The intended audience for this paper is faculty and students that are nervous and excited about undergoing curricular changes.

Last updated: 3:26 pm

Poster Presentation@CMU’s Teaching & Learning Summit

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August 16, 2016 12:20 PM

Peter Scupelli and Paul Inventado presented posters at the first Teaching and Learning Summit for faculty and graduate students hosted by Carnegie Mellon University’s Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence and Educational Innovation.

The event was designed to:

  • Foster dialogue, networking and collaboration within and across disciplines.
  • Showcase the educational research of CMU instructors and learning scientists.
  • Share transferable, evidence-based and innovative teaching strategies used by CMU instructors.

1. Scupelli, P. and Brooks, J. “Dexign Futures: a flipped, open learning initiative course”

Abstract:

Design for sustainability opportunities reside in bridging between short-term action and long-term strategic thinking. Unfortunately, traditional design pedagogy poorly equips designers for long-term strategic thinking. In the Dexign Futures class described in this poster, students learn to align short-term design with long-term horizons. Dexign Futures is a required design studies class for all third year undergraduate students in the products, communications, and environments tracks in the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University. Flipped courses shift lectures and instruction to the online learning initiative (OLI) course to use class time for hands-on activities. Online homework helps students to prepare for in-class activities. During in-class activities, the course instructor, and teaching assistants can provide students with feedback and answer questions. Likewise, in-class team activities and peer feedback can enhance student learning. Research from piloting of the online modules and in-class workshops are promising. We measure student learning for this flipped class.

2. Inventado, P. S. and Scupelli, P. “A Data-Driven Design Pattern Methodology to Facilitate Effective Pedagogical Practice in Online Learning Systems”

Abstract:

Paradoxically, online learning system designs often fail to fully benefit from research insights and findings expressed as learning principles possibly because of nuances in translating to specific learning contexts. We present a methodology that uses data exploration, statistical analyses, and machine learning to uncover relationships between designs and learning outcomes. In a specific context, effective designs linked to good outcomes are encapsulated into design patterns. For example, analyses of student interaction data from an online learning system revealed that struggling students quickly learned to solve similar math problems by requesting all available hints and answers, and learning from it. This was encapsulated into the Explain Worked Solutions design pattern: incorporate worked-out solutions in on-demand hints for students struggling with math problems. Design patterns are uncovered through research, and their continued evaluation and refinement ensures reproducibility in tested contexts. Uncovered design patterns are currently compiled into an online repository to facilitate use.

Last updated: 12:20 pm

Futures Panel@2016 a2ru National Conference

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August 16, 2016 10:45 AM

Peter Scupelli gave a talk on the opening plenary panel 2016 a2ru National Conference at the University of Colorado in Denver.  The theme of this year’s conference was ArtsRx: Creative Venture, Wellbeing & the New Humanities. The conference highlighted keynote speakers, panels, breakout sessions and workshops that explore and reflect arts-integrative interdisciplinary research and practice in higher education related to the following topics:

  • Arts and Health
  • Arts and Entrepreneurship
  • Science, Engineering, Arts & Design (S.E.A.D.)
  • New Directions and Applications in the Humanities

The opening plenary panel was a “Futures Panel” — using foresight as a cross-cutting lens to motivate a2ru’s work, to provide a bridge for adopting futures thinking into practice (as artists, scholars, interdisciplinarians), and to highlight it as a core skill for academic leadership.

The panel was composed of a collection of futures-based practitioners in the arts and was moderated by J.D. Talasek, Director of Cultural Program at the National Academy of Sciences, with student respondents from MIT, UT Dallas, and UC Denver.

Last updated: 10:45 am

Paper presentations @ DRS Conference 2016

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June 22, 2016 1:30 AM

Peter Scupelli presented papers at the 50th Anniversary Design+Research+Society Conference 2016, hosted by the University of Brighton in the UK. The papers featured were:

1) Scupelli & Hanington: Design Studio Desk and Shared Place Attachments: A Study on Ownership, Personalization, and Agency

Abstract:

Increasing numbers of students, limited space, and decreasing budgets nudge many university administrators to shift from assigned design studio desks to flexible workspace arrangements. This paper explores student attachment to the individual desk and shared spaces in a graduate design studio in a Design School in a North American first-tier research university. The studio had four interconnected spaces with: individual desks, collaborative workspaces, a kitchen-social cafe area, and a distance-learning classroom. We explored student perspectives and attitudes on studio aesthetics, functionality, agency, ownership, personalization, and occupancy patterns with four methods (i.e., online survey, student class schedules, interviews, time-lapse study). Perception of ownership, personalization, and agency were greatest for individual desks. Students perceived the individual desk as a primary territory even though the administration said desks were shared hot-desks. Individual work and collaborative work occurred throughout the studio regardless of functional assignment (e.g., spaces for individual work, collaboration, classroom).

2) Scupelli, Wasserman, & Brooks: Dexign Futures: A Pedagogy for Long-Horizon Design Scenarios

Abstract:

The transition towards societal level sustainability requires thinking and acting anew. Traditional design pedagogy poorly equips designers to integrate long- range strategic thinking with current human-centered design methods. In this paper, we describe a three-course sequence: Dexign Futures Seminar (DFS), Introduction to Dexign the Future (iDTF), and Dexign the Future (DTF). The term dexign indicates an experimental type of design that integrates Futures Thinking with Design Thinking. Students learn to engage strategic long time horizon scenarios from a generative design perspective. DFS, online modules, teaches students to critique and deconstruct existing futures scenarios. iDTF situates students to explore futures based themes and apply design methods and research techniques. DTF takes students into a semester-long project designing for 2050. In this paper, we describe lessons learned that lead to a pedagogy for supporting novices as they develop skills and methods for long time horizon futures design.

Last updated: 1:30 am

Paper presentations @ EDM2016

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June 22, 2016 11:34 AM

Peter Scupelli and Paul Inventado presented papers at The 9th International Conference on Educational Data Mining (EDM2016) in Raleigh, North Carolina.

1. Inventado, P.S., Scupelli, P., Van Inwegen, E., Ostrow, K. Heffernan, N. , Baker, R.,  Slater, S., and Ocumpaugh, J. “Hint Availability Slows Completion Times in Summer Work”

Abstract:

On-demand help in intelligent learning environments is typically linked to better learning, but may lead to longer completion times. This present work provides an analysis of how students interacted with a summer learning assignment when on-demand help was available, compared to when it was not. When hints were available from the start, students were more likely to delay work, compared to students for whom step-wise hints were only available after the third problem. When hints were always available, participants took significantly more time to complete a mastery learning assignment,. We interpret this difference in time to complete the assignment as an opportunity to re-engage in productive math learning.

2. Slater, S., Ocumpaugh, J., Baker, R., Scupelli, P., Inventado, P.S., and Heffernan, N. “Semantic Features of Math Problems: Relationships to Student Learning and Engagement”

Abstract:

The creation of crowd-sourced content in learning systems is a powerful method for adapting learning systems to the needs of a range of teachers in a range of domains, but the quality of this content can vary. This study explores linguistic differences in teacher-created problem content in ASSISTments using a combination of discovery with models and correlation mining. Specifically, we find correlations between semantic features of mathematics problems and indicators of learning and engagement, suggesting promising areas for future work on problem design. We also discuss limitations of semantic tagging tools within mathematics domains and ways of addressing these limitations.

Last updated: 11:34 am

Paper presentation @ 2016 IDSA International Conference

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June 22, 2016 2:00 AM

Peter Scupelli presented a paper he co-authored with Judy Brooks and Arnold Wasserman on “Making Dexign Futures learning happen: A case study for a flipped, Open-Learning Initiative course” at the 2016 Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) International Conference in Detroit, Michigan.

Abstract:

How do design educators make change happen to address new challenges? Currently, design educators are caught between challenges: first, teaching well-established design traditions based on craft and making; and second, training students to situate their artifact making within transitional times in a volatile and exponentially changing world. The tension design educators navigate involves teaching the core of a discipline in relation to an expanding periphery where multiple disciplines interact. The epistemic challenge is how to initiate students into the field’s crystallized knowledge at the same time as fluid, emergent knowledge. Some design educators may yearn for simpler times focusing on mastery of the deep disciplinary cores. Others may discount their own core disciplinary teaching in favor of exploration of the rapidly shifting disciplinary peripheries to meet new challenges and opportunities. We acknowledge both perspectives and further posit that students need exposure to both the core and periphery of design. This introduces an interesting learning challenge: an implicit contradiction for students of design where the core/making tends to reinforce short time horizon thinking; and the disciplinary periphery requires long time horizon visioning. We try to address this challenge by aligning short-term design opportunities with sustainable development plans for long time horizons. We merge design thinking and futures thinking to create “deXign” thinking. In this paper, we discuss a flipped classroom pedagogy that integrates design studio with an online component. The class we describe is called Dexign Futures. Dexign Futures is a required design studies class for all third year undergraduate students in the products, communications, and environments tracks in the School of Design at a North American tier-one research university. Because traditional design pedagogy poorly equips designers to integrate current human-centered design methods with long-range strategic thinking, a challenge we explore through the class is how to teach designing for the long time horizon. The Dexign Futures course is built on an elective three-course sequence: Dexign Futures Seminar (DFS), Introduction to Dexign the Future (iDTF), and Dexign the Future (DTF). The term deXign indicates an experimental type of design that integrates Futures Thinking with Design Thinking. In this paper, we discuss the process of making the Dexign Futures flipped classroom pedagogy happen by: (a) describing the online class modules in detail; (b) providing examples of in-class workshop activities; and (c) reflecting on lessons learned from iterative development of the online modules and in-class activities.

Last updated: 2:00 am

Paper presentation @ EuroPLoP 2016

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June 22, 2016 1:00 AM

Peter Scupelli and Paul Inventado presented their paper, “Media-type Selection Design Patterns for Problem-solving Content and Support in Online Learning Systems” at the 21st European Conference on Pattern Languages of Programs (EuroPLoP) 2016 in Bavaria, Germany.

EuroPLoP is the premier European conference on patterns and pattern languages. Design patterns are a unique and effective way to capture and share expertise, tacit knowledge and research findings.

Abstract:

Online learning systems have been gaining popularity, but are not without their challenges. For example, enrollment in MOOCs has slowed down, which is attributed to the lack of sustainability. Research has also shown that relying on delivered content alone results in lower learning gains. However, introducing learning activities increases learning gains as much as six times. These results emphasize the importance of designing high quality learning activities for online learning systems. Although there are many design patterns that may be applied in designing learning activities, they usually operate at a higher level. There is a need for design patterns that address problems in implementing these learning activities. This paper presents four design patterns that focus on helping students learn to represent math problems properly in the context of math online learning systems. These patterns can guide online learning system stakeholders (e.g., system developers, content creators, teachers) in creating high quality learning activities in online learning systems.

Last updated: 1:00 am