Post on 26-Jun-2015
description
Physics Pathway: A Digital Library Filled with
Synthetic Interviews
Presented at JCDL 2011, Ottawa, Canada
June 15, 2011
Mike Christel, Scott Stevens, and Dean Zollmanchristel@cs.cmu.edu
Entertainment Technology Center
Carnegie Mellon University
Talk Outline
• What are Synthetic Interviews?
• What is Physics Pathway?
• Field use of
Physics
Pathway
• Conclusions
Synthetic Interviews
Interface and indexing technology that allows an
individual to have a fluent conversation with a figure as
if that person were present in real time
Synthetic Interviews (SIs) for Physics Teaching
• Initially, one “Master Teacher” used, but recipients
wanted broader representation of opinions
• Four in corpus: Roberta Lang, Chuck Lang, Paul
Hewitt, Leroy Salary
Physics Pathway: Motivation
Teachers relatively new to physics teaching find 1-on-1
interactions with a mentor extremely valuable, but
mentors have limited time. SIs provide virtual mentoring.
Physics Pathway: SI and Video Library
• Left panel: Synthetic
Interview interface
(focus of this work)
• Right panel: Digital video
library interface (see
www.idvl.org for more details)
Synthetic Interview Interface
• 450,365 question variants
mapping to 6,598 physics subject
or physics pedagogy topics,
covered by one to four master
teachers in 7,600 video answers
• SI interface components – a
quick walkthrough….
(try it yourself later at
http://physicspathway.org)
SI: Query Interface
Interface into library of
synthetic interviews
emphasizes “Precision at 1”
– Top-rated answer to query
is immediately played to
keep up a fluent dialog
SI: Related Question
SI: Change Teacher
SI: Shortcuts
Two menus provide “quick
starter” shortcuts identified
by KSU physics
pedagogical experts and
American Association of
Physics Teacher (AAPT)
workshops to topic areas
covered by the digital
library
SI: Query History
SI: Feedback
Synthetic Interview Interface
• 450,365 question variants
mapping to 6,598 physics subject
or physics pedagogy topics,
covered by one to four master
teachers in 7,600 video answers
• SI: video playback, related links,
choose a master teacher,
provide feedback,
show what is answered,
query area (link to ComPADRE),
related questions,
past query history,
quick questions choices
Fall 2010 Trial with Physics Teachers
• 19 high school physics teachers, 14-week trial period
• Feedback given on individual responses
• Survey computed once a week
• 588 visits to web site
• Excellent coverage of SI data set to teachers’ queries:
only two queries received a default “I don’t have an
answer to that” video response (both typos)
Lessons Learned - 1
Source of played videos during sessions: Quick
question shortcuts used less than expected
Lessons Learned - 2
• Response coverage overwhelmingly seen as appropriate
• Relevance good: 67% good or ideal, another 29%
appropriate but not personally useful
Lessons Learned - 3
Synthetic interviews validated or reinforced physics
teachers’ ideas on their course materials and delivery
Question % of Teacher-Weeks
Built lesson from ideas in Physics Pathway 4.9%
Completely changed lesson plan 2.9%
Small changes to lesson plan 12.7%
No changes, Physics Pathway reinforced plan 34.3%
Did not use ideas from Physics Pathway 38.2%
Access via The Physics Front (NSDL)
Physics Pathway is a Partner site accessible from The Physics Front.org: “A free service provided by the American Association of Physics Teachers in partnership with the NSF/NSDL” –www.thephysicsfront.org(part of ComPADRE Digital Library in NSDL)
Example search: momentum looking at “Partner Results” http://www.thephysicsfront.org/search/fedsearch.cfm?area=federate&FedQuery=momentum&AllSearch=1
Take-Home Message from Paper
• Synthetic interviews engage physics teachers in a
virtual dialog for continuing education that has been
well received in AAPT workshops and KSU-directed
field tests
• The site is available for use at both
http://physicspathway.org and via thephysicsfront.org
Credits
Many members of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and Kansas State University (KSU) contributed to this work, including:
KSU Physics Education Research Group: Dean Zollman, Brian
Adrian, Chris Nakamura, Sytil Murphy
CMU Entertainment Technology Center: Scott Stevens, Bryan
Maher, Andy Korzik, Xiaoxi Liu, Srinavin Nair
ComPADRE/NSDL Integration: Lyle Barbato, Bruce Mason
For more information: http://www.physicspathway.org/PathwayHome.html
Library of physics teaching resources accessible via thephysicsfront.org or
directly at physicspathway.org
This work supported by the National Science Foundation Teacher
Professional Continuum Program under Grants 0455772 & 0455813. A
preliminary version was supported by NSF's NSDL Program under grants
0226219 & 0226157.