1. Berkeley Institute of Design Pedagogical Patterns as a Foundation for Computer-Mediated Curriculum Design in UC-WISE Andy Carle & Michael Clancy UC Berkeley Computer Science Division Berkeley Institute of Design

2. Outline Pedagogical Stagnancy Pedagogical Patterns The Pattern-Annotated Course Tool (PACT) Evaluation & Practical Uses UC-WISE Pedagogical Patterns in UC-WISE

3. Berkeley Institute of Design Modern Pedagogical Recommendations Learner-centered environments Systematic focus on the learner Emphasis on learning as an active process Cooperative learning, problem-based learning, peer instruction, inquiry-based learning e.g. Brown & Campione, 1994. Bransford et al. National Research Council (US), 1999.

4. Berkeley Institute of Design Institutional Inertia Many universities are stuck in the “dark age” of instruction  Lecture-based learning environments focused on the instructor rather than the learner Most tertiary-level instructors don’t know how to organize and deliver a learner-centered course Knowledgeable curriculum designers have trouble making a lasting impact Even a perfect curriculum is limited in its educational value for other instructors

5. Berkeley Institute of Design Outline Pedagogical Stagnancy Pedagogical Patterns The Pattern-Annotated Course Tool (PACT) Evaluation & Practical Uses UC-WISE Pedagogical Patterns in UC-WISE

6. Berkeley Institute of Design Design Patterns An abstraction of a commonly recurring design problem and its contextualized solution  Designed to inform users working in different contexts Originated by Christopher Alexander in the study of architectural design problems  “Each pattern describes a problem which occurs over and over again in our environment, and then describes the core of the solution to that problem, in such a way that you can use this solution a million times over, without ever doing it the same way twice” - Alexander A process by which ordinary people can capture the essence of a design decision by seeing how experts think about common problems in the domain Alexander, Ishikawa, & Silverstein, 1977.

7. Berkeley Institute of Design The Pedagogical Patterns Project Goals  Recreate the success of design patterns in architecture and software engineering in the space of pedagogical theory  Identify and disseminate context-neutral abstractions of best practices for teaching  Encourage instantiation of these patterns in diverse situations Early work by Sharp, Manns, Prieto, and McLaughlin focused on teaching object-oriented programming concepts  Subsequent work by Joe Bergin extended the focus to general CS education Pattern Format:  Description of the problem  Forces governing the application of the pattern  Description of the solution  Advice on implementing the solution Sharp et al., 2000. http://www.pedagogicalpatterns.org/

8. Berkeley Institute of Design A Pedagogical Pattern: Early Warning You teach a course in which ideas build upon one another and students will be lost if they do not understand early material Your students may not realize that they are falling behind or that they have misconceptions, but you are in a better position to recognize it. Students may waste time and effort if they have fallen behind or have misunderstood, but time is short. If your students fall behind or miss early material it will be difficult for them to catch up and succeed. Therefore, give them early warning when you see that they are not coping with the amount of work, or they have misunderstood some topic. Advice is best if it points a path to success, not just pointing out the roadblock. The earlier you give the advice, the better chance for success in the student. This can take many forms. If your course has special pitfalls for the student, you can publish these on your course FAQ. It helps if you give frequent short exams and quickly return the marked papers. Some universities require exams in every course every Friday, for example. from: Bergin et al., Feedback Patterns http://www.pedagogicalpatterns.org/current/feedback.pdf

9. Berkeley Institute of Design Practical Problems Abstract patterns are difficult to apply to a specific course or context  Similarly, patterns that are deeply contextualized are difficult to transfer to unrelated situations Pattern-informed environments rarely reveal clues about the underlying patterns to the untrained observer Collaboration between content experts and pedagogical specialists is rare Sharp et al., 2003. Fincher & Utting, 2002.

10. Berkeley Institute of Design Outline Pedagogical Stagnancy Pedagogical Patterns The Pattern-Annotated Course Tool (PACT) Evaluation & Practical Uses UC-WISE Pedagogical Patterns in UC-WISE

11. Berkeley Institute of Design PACT: Design Goals Create a learner-centered application shaped by principles from the learning sciences  Making thinking visible  Scaffolding  A progression from concrete to abstract Capture instructional expertise in a useful way for others. Encourage experimentation with, and adoption of, best pedagogical practices Guide instructors in framing course goals and refining courses to meet them Offer a cohesive framework applicable across a range of instructional settings

12. Berkeley Institute of Design Features: Course Authoring

13. Berkeley Institute of Design Features: Course Authoring

14. Berkeley Institute of Design Features: Intuitive Navigation Based on the Zoomable User Interface metaphor  Piccolo ZUI Toolkit (Maryland) Easy navigation between various levels of scope and scale A powerful visualization that brings the curriculum out of the abstract and gives it a sense of physical structure Focus plus context Piccolo: Bederson, et al., 2004. Focus plus context: Baudisch, et al. 2002.

15. Berkeley Institute of Design Features: Direct Manipulation Interface All objects can be directly manipulated using familiar mouse actions Simple to reorganize objects, collections, and pattern references while quickly making links between related objects Connecting the behavior of course objects directly to the user’s actions further reifies what were once abstract concepts The simplicity of these operations can encourage users who are not even interested in pedagogical patterns to investigate our tool e.g. Schneiderman, 1983

16. Berkeley Institute of Design Features: Informal Representations Instructors must be willing to make changes to existing courses to get the full benefit of PACT Presentation style graphics such as those in professional diagramming tools discourage this type of experimental play PACT uses informal colors, shapes, and fonts to suggest an intermediate and abstract sketch  This type of interface has been shown to encourage change and exploration Hong & Landay, 2000

17. Berkeley Institute of Design Video/Demo

18. Berkeley Institute of Design Outline Pedagogical Stagnancy Pedagogical Patterns The Pattern-Annotated Course Tool (PACT) Evaluation & Practical Uses UC-WISE Pedagogical Patterns in UC-WISE

19. Berkeley Institute of Design Evaluation Usability and Utility testing  Still in a pilot stage Three metrics of interest  Usefulness to the curriculum designer Expert and novice  Improvement in the quality of curricula designed Both with and without PACT  Learning benefits for students Practical Use

20. Berkeley Institute of Design Expert Instructor Reflection The process of annotating a course with references to pedagogical patterns helps experienced instructors unravel their own understanding of their design Carefully reflecting on each portion of a course with the pedagogical patterns framework in mind can lead to an emergent picture of how the designer views the material in the curriculum along with the affordances of the learning environment in which it is being presented This rich understanding can, in turn, be used to iteratively improve the material and structure of the course

21. Berkeley Institute of Design Novice Instructor Learning Pedagogical patterns used in a real curriculum take on a concrete meaning that can not be achieved in the abstract Pattern cloning allows users to create new content based on existing patterns  Authors can then make the content changes necessary to adapt to the new course without fundamentally changing the semantics of the pattern instances Straightforward rote learning of patterns

22. Berkeley Institute of Design PACT and Patterns as a Discussion Tool The PACT interface makes an excellent visual aid for describing and discussing issues in pedagogy and curriculum design In this use, PACT is a teaching tool in the hands of the pedagogical expert Pattern annotations provide a rich language for discussing the nuances of curriculum design  PACT focuses the audience on the effectiveness of patterns and their activities

23. Berkeley Institute of Design Outline Pedagogical Stagnancy Pedagogical Patterns The Pattern-Annotated Course Tool (PACT) Evaluation & Practical Uses UC-WISE Pedagogical Patterns in UC-WISE

24. Berkeley Institute of Design What is UC-WISE? “University of California Web-based Instruction for Science and Engineering”  A course format for lab-based instruction  The system infrastructure for course authoring and delivery

25. Berkeley Institute of Design The UC-WISE system Hierarchical data base of annotated course activities (~500 per course) + student responses  served by WISE (Web-based Inquiry Science Environment), developed at UCB School of Education Student Portal Curriculum Builder (for creating courses from scratch) Course Builder (for tailoring existing courses)

26. Berkeley Institute of Design UC-WISE course activities Typical programming activities: writing, modifying, analyzing, testing, debugging programs Embedded assessments (various kinds) Online and face-to-face collaboration Algorithm/program visualizations (starting spring 07)

27. Berkeley Institute of Design UC-WISE CS courses so far CS 3L (“Introduction to Symbolic Programming”), piloted summer 2002, offered since spring 2003. CS 61BL (“Data Structures and Programming Methodology”), piloted fall 2004, run fall 2005, will be run spring 2007. CS 4 (“Introduction to Programming for Engineers”), piloted fall 2004, run spring 2006. U.C. Merced CSE 20, 21, 30

28. Berkeley Institute of Design Activities for CS 61BL PDF (To view these as a student might see them, surf to fall05.ucwise.org, then follow the guest links.)

29. Berkeley Institute of Design Outline Pedagogical Stagnancy Pedagogical Patterns The Pattern-Annotated Course Tool (PACT) Evaluation & Practical Uses UC-WISE Pedagogical Patterns in UC-WISE

30. Berkeley Institute of Design Activities vs. patterns Literature on pedagogical patterns has focused either on high-level patterns (course- wide or topic-wide) or on vague best practices. UC-WISE course activities seem to provide a lower level of abstraction appropriate for day- to-day patterns.

31. Berkeley Institute of Design PACT role in pattern formation Analysis of CS 3L activities (designed by Clancy) revealed that most of the course involved instances of  example + elaboration  explanation + elaboration We hadn’t realized this before. What about the parts of the course that don’t fit those patterns?

32. Berkeley Institute of Design The Course Builder Aim: Allow prospective instructors to build courses out of our raw material Goals include:  Richly annotated course material  A “critical review” facility Pedagogical patterns can help!

33. Berkeley Institute of Design Patterns in a digital library? UC-WISE system  digital library containing entire courses, not just isolated learning objects  Expectation: differences in access to components, relevant metadata Use pedagogical patterns to access course components?

34. Berkeley Institute of Design Inventing courses = design How do course designs evolve? How do novice instructors learn this process? What patterns are successful, and when?

35. Berkeley Institute of Design Thanks to... CITRIS (early critical support) CITRIS ITR Hewlett-Packard NSF (DUE 0443121) WISE and TELS projects (UCB School of Education) Microsoft Research (initial PACT funding)

36. Berkeley Institute of Design Questions/Comments? Email: Andy: acarle@cs.berkeley.edu Mike: clancy@cs.berkeley.edu PACT: www.cs.berkeley.edu/~acarle/PACT/ UC-WISE: www.cs.berkeley.edu/~clancy/web/ucwise.html Guest access to UC-WISE curricula: fall05.ucwise.org BiD bid.berkeley.edu