APL design of graphic displays for motivation in distance education

Abstract

APL is used in the experimental design of graphic displays to be applied in real-time, on-line education. These graphic displays are to be integrated in instructional dialogs. Our aim is to discover displays that will motivate students while they take computer mediated and distance learning courses. During the learning process, it is especially important for a student to receive feedback about his/her progress, continually and within a few tens of seconds of the most recent interaction. This feedback may indicate student performance relative to the recent past and also relative to their peers who have interacted with the same learning items. Compact and easy-to-interpret graphical or quantitative (partly numeric) displays of student progress are designed as character arrays. The rules for constructing these arrays are described conveniently in APL functions. Such functions specify a template each display and establish design correctness. The functions also allow flexible testing that reveals how easy it is to understand each display.