Designing Adaptive, Diagnostic Math Assessments for Individuals With and Without Visual Disabilities

Self Cite

This paper reports on a 3-year, NSF-funded research and development project called ACED:Adaptive Content with Evidence-based Diagnosis. The purpose of the project was to design, develop, and evaluate an assessment for learning (AfL) system for diverse students, using Algebra I content related to geometric sequences (i.e., successive numbers linked by a common ratio). A key feature of the project was its dual focus on both learning effectiveness and accessibility. The project consisted of two studies. Study 1 (N = 268) experimentally evaluated the impact on learning of two ACED features: (a) elaborated task feedback and (b) adaptive sequencing of tasks. Study 2 examined the accessibility of ACED for students with visual disabilities (N = 4; two blind and two low-vision)-in a condition involving both adaptive sequencing and elaborated feedback-using a variety of accessibility features. Available features included voicing of test content (via synthesized and prerecorded audio), talking tactile graphics, font enlargement, screen magnification,and so on. Together these studies lay groundwork for the design of AfL systems that can enhance the learning of individuals with and without disabilities.

Section: Accommodations For Individuals With Disabilitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Assessment for Learning System Called Aced: Designing for Learning Effectiveness and Accessibility

Shute

Hansen

Almond

2007

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“…In contrast with microadaptation, macroadaptive decisions are domain independent and are based on learner information that is usually, but not always, collected before instruction begins (see Snow, 1992;Shute, Graf, & Hansen, 2005, for more on this topic). Macroadaptation relates to decisions about the format and sequence of the content presented to the learner.…”

Section: Individual Differencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Again, it is important to ensure that each of these is weighed against concerns for construct validity, equity, and access (Bennett & Bejar, 1998;Shute, Graf, & Hansen, 2005).…”

Section: Putting It All Togethermentioning

confidence: 99%

Tensions, Trends, Tools, and Technologies: Time for an Educational Sea Change

Shute¹

2006

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This report outlines three educational approaches: (a) traditional, the currently dominant approach, a largely lecture-oriented, authoritarian style that makes heavy use of assessments of learning, which are useful for accountability purposes but only marginally useful for guiding day-to-day instruction; (b) progressive, a highly student-centered approach that relies on assessments for learning, which can be very useful in guiding day-to-day instruction; and (c) unified, a new, integrated approach that uses the best of both kinds of assessments-for and of learning-and which leverages computer technology, educational measurement, and cognitive science to address factors that undermined earlier attempts to implement the progressive approach. This report examines some of the research, trends, and factors that should be considered, understood, and, in some cases, leveraged, in order to move toward the unified approach. Further, this report presents examples of how ETS projects are moving toward the new approach to harness assessment in the service of learning.

“…Cromley and Mislevy (2004) extended ECD by incorporating misconceptions into a template structure. Shute, Graf, and Hansen (2005) described how ECD was applied to the development of the Adaptive Content with the Evidence-Based Diagnosis (ACED) system, a computer-based diagnostic assessment that focused on mathematical sequences suitable to assess at the eighth-grade level.…”

Section: Supporting Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Approaches to the Design of Diagnostic Item Models

Graf¹

2008

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As part of its educational and social mission and in fulfilling the organization's nonprofit charter and bylaws, ETS has and continues to learn from and also to lead research that furthers educational and measurement research to advance quality and equity in education and assessment for all users of the organization's products and services. AbstractQuantitative item models are item structures that may be expressed in terms of mathematical variables and constraints. An item model may be developed as a computer program from which large numbers of items are automatically generated. Item models can be used to produce large numbers of items for use in traditional, large-scale assessments. But they have potential for use in other areas as well, including diagnostic assessment. In this report, I first review research on diagnostic assessment and then discuss how approaches to diagnostic assessment can inform the design of diagnostic item models.