SBIR Phase I: ASPOA: Applying Semantic Paradata to Outcomes-aligned Assessment

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project aims to improve the quality of online education and training by making it easier to add relevant quiz questions and knowledge checks to content as it is being created. The project applies recent advances in the ability of computers to detect topics and themes in text and to process natural language and builds on ideas from projects such as the Federal Learning Registry that associate contextual data to educational objects so that they can be better discovered and used. This Phase I project will create a proof-of-concept system that applies these methods to align existing questions to educational and training outcomes and to generate new questions relevant to the text being authored. Research objectives include validating that the system (a) effectively aligns content and assessments with outcomes, (b) supports curriculum design and (c) generates quality questions. The project will also research technical requirements for integration with enterprise learning platforms. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project comes from significantly lowering the barrier to adding assessments to online content and from ensuring that these assessments are aligned with educational and training outcomes. This will help educational and commercial customers evaluate and demonstrate the effectiveness of online programs. It will also reduce the time and cost required to develop and deliver quality online training that focuses on specific competencies and learning objectives. More generally, the proposed technology has the potential to transform any content into an active and engaging learning experience by adding assessments. The proposed technology will be designed for integration into existing learning and learning content authoring systems as a software service. Initial collaborators include the assessment subsidiary of one of the largest learning management system companies and the National STEM Digital Library Resource Center.