Educational Software Design (CS2277.01)

Justin Vasselli

The fundamental goal of educational software is to teach or reinforce the user’s knowledge in a specific domain.  The system must be able to adapt to user needs and current level of domain knowledge to be truly effective. In this class, we will be using language learning as the primary domain for exploring the concepts of educational software design.

Designing software for computer assisted language learning carries the additional challenge of teaching a very broad and evolving domain where there is rarely only one correct answer to a given question, and machines are yet imperfect at understanding or producing language themselves.  Students in this course will draw on research being conducted in language pedagogy, linguistics, artificial intelligence, and natural language processing to make informed design decisions for a learning system of their own.  Students will read and critique literature weekly, as well as contribute to the design of a prototype system for language learning in collaboration with computer science students.  Specific topics will include knowledge representation, dialog systems, machine learning, and user models.

This is not a programming course.  No programming experience is required.


Learning Outcomes:



Delivery Method: Entirely remote (asynchronous)
Prerequisites:None.
Course Level: 2000-level
Credits: 2
Asynchronously Remote (1st seven weeks)
Maximum Enrollment: 8
Course Frequency: One time only

Categories: All courses , Computer Science , Foreign Language Education
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