Model Human Learners: Computational Models to Guide Instructional Design

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Author: MacLellan, Christopher J.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author MacLellan, Christopher J.
author_facet MacLellan, Christopher J.
contents Instructional designers face an overwhelming array of design choices, making it challenging to identify the most effective interventions. To address this issue, I propose the concept of a Model Human Learner, a unified computational model of learning that can aid designers in evaluating candidate interventions. This paper presents the first successful demonstration of this concept, showing that a computational model can accurately predict the outcomes of two human A/B experiments -- one testing a problem sequencing intervention and the other testing an item design intervention. It also demonstrates that such a model can generate learning curves without requiring human data and provide theoretical insights into why an instructional intervention is effective. These findings lay the groundwork for future Model Human Learners that integrate cognitive and learning theories to support instructional design across diverse tasks and interventions.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_02456
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Model Human Learners: Computational Models to Guide Instructional Design
MacLellan, Christopher J.
Human-Computer Interaction
Artificial Intelligence
Symbolic Computation
Instructional designers face an overwhelming array of design choices, making it challenging to identify the most effective interventions. To address this issue, I propose the concept of a Model Human Learner, a unified computational model of learning that can aid designers in evaluating candidate interventions. This paper presents the first successful demonstration of this concept, showing that a computational model can accurately predict the outcomes of two human A/B experiments -- one testing a problem sequencing intervention and the other testing an item design intervention. It also demonstrates that such a model can generate learning curves without requiring human data and provide theoretical insights into why an instructional intervention is effective. These findings lay the groundwork for future Model Human Learners that integrate cognitive and learning theories to support instructional design across diverse tasks and interventions.
title Model Human Learners: Computational Models to Guide Instructional Design
topic Human-Computer Interaction
Artificial Intelligence
Symbolic Computation
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.02456