Custom Software Supports Educational Research at UCI
About the ISI Research Lab
The ISI Research Lab at UCI, Irvine improves literacy and math instruction by developing tools to assess student performance. These researchers have advanced educational research and, in conjunction with the team at Outcome Engine, have built custom software that analyzes students' progress. These tools help educators understand how students are doing in their learning.
The ultimate goal is to enhance literacy and math instruction through analyzing this data. The lab helps teachers and their students, especially those in poverty, with learning disabilities, or with speech and hearing problems to improve vocabulary instruction.
One of their main projects is WKE-Book, an interactive tool that helps students learn new words through a “choose your own adventure” format. This method helps students learn new words in stories and use them to make decisions, which makes learning fun and effective.
The Challenge
The first version of WKE-Book had some problems:
- Prototype Limitations: The tool only had one story, which made it difficult to use for different lessons. Researchers needed something more flexible.
- Expanded Functionality Needs: Researchers wanted to improve the tool by adding more features. These features included making and editing stories, asking open-ended questions, and managing educational information effectively. They also needed to study classroom learning environments, often using video recordings and coding tools.
Tools and Methodology
React and Laravel
React was used to build the front end, making it interactive and easy to use. We used Laravel for the back end to handle data and server tasks.
Advanced Authoring Tools
The new platform included tools that let researchers create and change stories easily. These tools also helped track how students used the stories, providing important data for research.
Outcomes
- Proven Learning Tool: The new WKE-Book improved how students learned new words. This success led to more research projects and funding for the ISI lab.
- Classroom Use: With its effectiveness proven, WKE-Book was ready for commercialization. Several school districts successfully used this software, demonstrating its broader educational impact and potential for wider use.
- Educational Impact: The WKE-Book project shows how custom software development can improve education. Outcome Engine helped UCI researchers improve literacy instruction and educational research by providing personalized learning tools and detailed data insights.