System and method for the development of instructional and testing materials
View Patent ↗Aspects of the present invention provide a system that supports (1) the development and administration of instructional materials and/or programs, (2) the development, administration, scoring, and reporting of assessment materials and/or programs, and/or (3) the integration of instruction with assessment materials and/or programs. The system achieves this by organizing the content in these materials and programs into learning targets and ordering the learning targets to reflect the pre-cursor/post-cursor relationships among the learning targets.
1. A computer-implemented method for modifying or creating an academic achievement test, said method comprising:
storing, in a database system, indicators for each of a plurality of content areas, each indicator comprising a learning target;
defining and storing in the database system relational associations among the stored indicators, whereby, for at least a portion of the indicators stored, each indicator is associated with at least one other indicator that is a pre-cursor of the associated indicator and at least one other indicator that is a post-cursor of the associated indicator, wherein an indicator that is a pre-cursor of an associated indicator relates to knowledge a student should have before being taught the associated indicator, and an indicator that is a post-cursor of an associated indicator relates to knowledge a student should acquire more readily after being taught the associated indicator;
storing, in the database system, a plurality of test items and associating each test item with one of the stored indicators;
enabling a user, via a user interface unit, to select a content area for which the user wishes to develop testing material;
enabling the user to select, via the user interface unit, a topic within the selected content area for which the user wishes to develop testing material, wherein a topic comprises a growth strand including indicators associated in pre-cursor and post-cursor relationships;
enabling the user to select, via the user interface unit, one of the indicators of the selected topic as a target indicator, wherein the selected target indicator has one or more depths of knowledge associated therewith;
in response to receiving a target indicator selection from the user:
determining, via an information processor executing software instructions retrieved from a software store, from the stored relational associations, at least one pre-cursor indicator of the target indicator and at least one post-cursor indicator of the target indicator, and
identifying, via the information processor, from the stored plurality of test items, test items associated with the target indicator, test items associated with the at least one pre-cursor indicator, and test items associated with the at least one post-cursor indicator;
displaying to the user, via the user interface unit, the target indicator and item identifiers corresponding to the test items associated with the target indicator, the at least one pre-cursor indicator and item identifiers corresponding to the test items associated with the pre-cursor indicator, and the at least one post-cursor indicator and item identifiers corresponding to the test items associated with the post-cursor indicator in such a manner as to indicate which of the displayed item identifiers are associated with the target indicator, which of the displayed item identifiers are associated with the pre-cursor indicator, and which of the displayed item identifiers are associated with the post-cursor indicator; and
generating a new, or modifying a previously existing, academic achievement test by receiving, via the interface unit, a user's selection of any of the displayed item identifiers and a user's specification that the test item corresponding to the selected item identifier be added to or removed from the academic achievement test and adding or removing the specified test items to or from the academic achievement test.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the displaying step comprises displaying, via the user interface unit, a user interface screen comprising an item selection matrix for presenting the item identifiers.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the item selection matrix comprises a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns, each row corresponding to an indicator and each column corresponding to a depth of knowledge.
4. The method of claim 3 , wherein, for each test item identified in the identifying step, the identifier for the test item is displayed in the row corresponding to the indicator with which the test item identified by the identifier is associated.
5. The method of claim 4 , wherein, for each test item identified in the identifying step, the identifier for the test item is displayed in the column corresponding to the depth of knowledge with which the test item identified by the identifier is associated.
6. The method of claim 5 , wherein each row of the matrix corresponds to either a post-cursor of the selected target indicator, a pre-cursor of the selected target indicator, or the selected target indicator itself.
7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising the steps of:
displaying at least a portion of the rows of the matrix corresponding to the target indicator with a first background color;
displaying at least a portion of the rows of the matrix corresponding to pre-cursors with a second background color; and
displaying at least a portion of the rows of the matrix corresponding to post-cursors with a third background color.
8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of enabling the user to select one recommended test from a set of available recommended tests.
9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising the steps of:
receiving an indication that the user has selected one recommended test from the set of available recommended tests; and
after receiving the indication that the user has selected the one recommended test, displaying to the user an item identifier for each item included in the selected recommended test.
10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
enabling the user to select any of the displayed item identifiers; and
displaying to the user the item corresponding to the item identifier selected by the user.
11. An educational administrative computer system comprising:
a user interface unit;
an information processor; and
a database system,
wherein the system is associated with one or more sets of learning targets, with each set of learning targets being associated with a content area and an education level, and wherein the information processor includes a software storage unit, said software storage unit storing instructions which, when executed by the information processor, cause the information processor to:
receive a user's content area selection from the user interface unit;
receive a user's education level selection from the user interface unit;
receive a user's state selection from the user interface unit, wherein the selected state is associated with one or more sets of state performance indicators, with each set of said state performance indicators being associated with a content area and an education level;
display, via the user interface unit, a first column of a table each of the learning targets included in the set of learning targets associated with the selected content area and education level; and
for each learning target displayed in the first column of the table, determine the selected state's performance indicator(s) corresponding to the learning target and display, via the user interface unit, said state's performance indicator(s) in a cell of the table that is in the same row as the learning target and in a second column of the table.
12. The system of claim 11 , wherein said software storage unit further stores instructions which, when executed by the information processor, cause the information processor to enable the user, via the user interface unit, to select a viewpoint and updating the table so that the table corresponds to the selected viewpoint.