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Before we can describe EduCAD™ the product we must start by providing a common base of how the product works. That means we have to start with the difference between teaching and learning.
The most common method of teaching today is the Teaching Segment (see Figure 1). This process starts with the student being taught a concept, or a set of concepts. Then the student drills and practices what has been taught. Finally, at the end of the segment the student is tested to determine if they know the segment enough to continue to the next segment.
Figure 1: Teaching Segment
In this process there are usually grades at the testing level, and a "C" (or a percentile grade higher than 70%) is considered to be a passing grade. Once the segment has been passed (generally by the majority of the students), the next segment is started.
While this method makes it easy to teach, it does a disservice to the student since they can pass from segment to segment while not understanding core concepts that may be the building blocks of future segments.
An alternative approach is the Learning Cycle™ (see Figure 2). Here the methodology is changed from teaching segments in accordance to a curriculum to making sure that the students understand core concepts before moving on to the next area to be taught.
Figure 2: Learning Cycle™
A key differentiator in this model is that the process starts with a diagnosis of what the student doesn't know and thereby defines his knowledge base. From there the teacher can teach those concepts that will build upon the current knowledge. The student can then drill on those new concepts, and then the cycle is started again so that the teacher knows with a redefined base of knowledge for the student.
Since there is no "test" for the student to pass or fail, there is far less tension in the educational process. Additionally, there is little chance that a student will have problems with prior underlying concepts that they don't understand, or have misunderstood, during the “teach” portion of the cycle when they are presented with the new concepts.
EduCAD™
The EduCAD™ product is a question and answer system using computed generated multiple-choice answers for a computer-generated question. Unlike most Q&A systems, each answer to a specific question in EduCAD™ is actually a “correct answer” generated by the specific misapplication of a primitive concept against the problem presented (with the exception being that the correct answer will also be presented as one of the solutions).When a student selects an answer the system will generate another problem that uses the answer provided to determine the path to the next question. In this way EduCAD™ will probe to see exactly what the student misunderstood in their selection if they did not select the correct response.
If you were to consider subject matter like a tree in which higher level concepts branch from lower level concepts, what EduCAD™ is able to do is quickly transverse the tree to determine the junctions that the student moves from understanding to misapplication (the points where the student moves from understanding how to do something to not understanding how to do something).
Once the student completes the diagnosis, EduCAD™ generates a report that acts like a contour map defining the student’s mastery and limitations of the subject area. Using this information a teacher can then teach the concepts that the student needs to learn from the base where the student currently has knowledge and understanding.
Looked at in this manner, education becomes targeted to the student’s abilities and needs. Like "Just-In-Time" manufacturing provides just the right part to the person assembling a product just when they need the part, EduCAD™ permits the educator to teach just what the student needs to know at the time when the student has the knowledge they need to understand and make use of the new concepts.
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