Mathematically modeling learning of a corpus using spacing
Gwern Branwen
mathematicians among us will find it interesting. "Education of a
model student" PDF:
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/01/13/1109863109.full.pdf
Abstract http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/01/13/1109863109.abstract
:
> A dilemma faced by teachers, and increasingly by designers of educational software, is the trade-off between teaching new material and reviewing what has already been taught. Complicating matters, review is useful only if it is neither too soon nor too late. Moreover, different students need to review at different rates. We present a mathematical model that captures these issues in idealized form. The student’s needs are modeled as constraints on the schedule according to which educational material and review are spaced over time. Our results include algorithms to construct schedules that adhere to various spacing constraints, and bounds on the rate at which new material can be introduced under these schedules.
From the PDF:
> ...[software] could fit a model to the user and then schedule review in a way that is tailored to the model.
> With such educational software in mind, we envision a system in which the software designer can specify a schedule for the introduction of new material, together with a schedule by which the review of existing material is spaced over time. What we find, however, is that the resulting scheduling problems are mathematically subtle: Existing techniques do not handle scheduling problems with spacing constraints of this type.
_Wired_ coverage:
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/01/algorithmic-education/
Peter Bienstman
come in handy.
Peter
Peter Bienstman
Ghent University, Dept. of Information Technology
Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 41, B-9000 Gent, Belgium
tel: +32 9 264 34 46, fax: +32 9 264 35 93
WWW: http://photonics.intec.UGent.be
email: Peter.B...@UGent.be
