Education and demonstration – Question or problem eliciting response
Reexamination Certificate
2002-03-13
2004-03-16
Rovnak, John Edmund (Department: 3714)
Education and demonstration
Question or problem eliciting response
C434S323000, C434S362000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06705872
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND-FIELD OF INVENTION
This invention generally relates to field of assessment, and more particularly, to a method and system that facilitate the creation and maintenance of assessments.
BACKGROUND-DESCRIPTION OF PRIOR ART
There are many situations that require one party to use some method of assessment to gather information on another party. In this context, assessments are means and methods used to evaluate, test, measure and/or other means used by one party to gain insight into another party's understanding, knowledge, comprehension, progress, skill development, memory and other criteria.
The most common example of this is when a teacher must assess the knowledge that has been absorbed by students. In addition to an academic environment, there are many other situations in which assessment may be used. Some examples may include: a company training its workers on how to use a new technology product; a market research firm asking respondents to a survey to evaluate a new packaging design; or an insurance company determining whether a potential policy holder has read and understands the policy for which they are seeking coverage. These are just a few of many ways in which information assessment may be used.
Until the advent of computer technology, most assessment was limited to using either verbal or handwritten means to gather the information provided by the assessment. For example, in the classroom setting the teacher might ask questions and seek verbal responses or the teacher may use a print format by administering tests or quizzes. However, with improvements in computer technology and, in particular, the advent of computer networks such as the Internet and corporate Intranets, assessments can now be carried out in electronic form. For example, students can take a course over the Internet without the need to be in the classroom and can take tests, quizzes and other assessments by using a computer to access courseware; or a consumer can be recruited by an advertising agency to view and evaluate advertisements that are sent to their interactive television; or a trade show operator can send questionnaires regarding the effectiveness of the show, which are accessible by exhibitors or show attendees via their wireless devices.
The process for creating assessments that are electronically delivered has generally followed a method that consists of the following steps. The person creating the assessment reviews material (e.g., reading material, presentation material, web sites, etc.) for which an assessment is required. During or after the review the person creating the assessment determines what form (e.g., multiple choice questions, essay, attitude/opinion measurement, etc.) the assessment will take. The person creating the assessment then creates the assessment using an electronic creation tool (e.g., educational courseware, HTML form, word processing document, etc). Once created the person creating the assessment reviews and alters the assessment as needed. The assessment is then made available electronically (e.g., transferring file, submitting through courseware, electronically mailing, etc.). Finally the person being assessed accesses and completes the assessment.
An inherent drawback for users who create and maintain assessments for electronic delivery rests in the fact that current methods require the user to alternate between the source(s) of information from which the assessment will be drawn and the electronic tools used to develop the assessment. That is, the information content from which the assessment will be drawn and the assessment development tools are not within a continuous unified perceptual experience.
A continuous unified perceptual experience exists when one or more sensory inputs or stimuli are present, either concurrently or in relevant sequential order, so that the user's overall sensory experience or awareness registers as a single or series of associated and undisturbed events. For the purpose of this invention such an experience takes place within the experience obtained when interacting, either passively or actively, with certain electronic or communications devices. The main principle behind the continuous unified perceptual experience is that the person who is registering the experience when interacting with the electronic and/or communications device is perceiving that the stimuli they are experiencing are linked or unified in a logical or rational manner such as being associated with a specific item or application and/or emanating from a single source. A disruption to the link that establishes the perceived connection of stimuli results in a disruption to the person's perceptual experience. A distinction is not made based on length of time of exposure to the stimuli but on common characteristics that link the stimuli and that these links are relevant within the context of the person's current expectations of the perceptual experience.
For the purpose of this invention, examples may include: information provided through a single computer application such as a single web browser; programming provided through a single analog or digital wireline broadcast source such as cable sources and programming provided through a single analog or digital wireless broadcast source such over-the-air television and radio, satellite, and other wireless applications. In each of these examples someone whose current perceptual experience is focused on the information (i.e., stimuli) provided by these sources recognizes that these are linked as long as the delivery of the stimuli remains undisturbed within the user's expectations of the perceptual experience.
For example, when watching television the viewer may become absorbed with programming offered by a broadcast channel, which contains many sensory stimuli most notably text, video and audio, which the viewer realizes are integrated to produce the programming content. For the viewer the combination of different sensory stimuli offered by the broadcaster produces a unified event. However, if the broadcast channel is changed, then a viewer's perceptual experience has been altered and the viewer's awareness has to some degree shifted away from the programming offered by the previously viewed broadcast channel.
Likewise, when working with programs or applications through a computer interface device, a user's experience is often interrupted by the need to switch between programs or applications in order to complete a task. The switching presents the user with new sensor stimuli either fully or partially in place of the perceptual experience they were sensing before the switching occurred. For example, a user may need to switch from one program or application to another, which may create a situation whereby the program or application the user was working with is now overlaid, either fully or partially, with another program or application. These interruptions in one's perceptual experience may present problems to the user of the interface device as they make certain adjustments to handle the shift in their awareness.
A drawback of existing methods for creating and maintaining assessments is that these require the user to work with information content and the assessment creation tools that represent separate sensory experiences. The user is required, in nearly all situations, to make physical and/or mental adjustments or manipulations that at one point in time brings the information content within their sensory experience and another adjustment or manipulation to bring the assessment creation tools into their sensory experience. The act of bringing one of these items into the user's perceptual experience requires that the other item depart the user's perceptual experience either in part or in full.
For example, a teacher may instruct students to visit a number of web sites as part of a class assignment. The teacher would like to create a means to assess the level of knowledge or experience (or measure some other attribute) gained by the student after visiting the
Christ Paul Francis
Pearson Michael Vincent
LandOfFree
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