real-time monitoring of learning progress or difficulties over time, thus enabl- ... ABCD SW is an open source web application that supports learning for children ...
Monitoring Learning in Children with Autism Valentina Bartalesi1, Maria Claudia Buzzi2, Marina Buzzi2, Barbara Leporini1, and Caterina Senette2 1 ISTI-CNR, via Moruzzi 1, 56124 Pisa, Italy {Valentina.Bartalesi,Barbara.Leporini}@isti.cnr.it 2 IIT-CNR, via Moruzzi 1, 56124 Pisa, Italy {Claudia.Buzzi,Marina.Buzzi,Caterina.Senette}@iit.cnr.it
Abstract. We present a learning analytic tool for analyzing data collected during didactic sessions performed by children with autism, via software. The tool is a web application that automatically extracts, aggregates and visualizes the children’s performance data collected when they perform technology-enhanced exercises during didactic activities. The aim is to provide teachers with easy real-time monitoring of learning progress or difficulties over time, thus enabling continuous and personalized tuning of the didactic intervention. Extracted data can be visualized through tables and graphics, allowing the user to further explore them in an interactive modality. Educators were involved in the design phase of the tool, in order to define the most important analysis parameters to extract from the huge amount of collected data. The educators were also involved in the test phases to improve the system’s usability. Keywords: autism, learning, ABA, data analysis, learning analytic tool.
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Introduction
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is classified as a type of Pervasive Developmental Disorder that affects individuals with different degrees of impairment. Traditional education methods are ineffective for children with autism, so different teaching approaches aimed at better exploiting the subject’s abilities are adopted. Of these, Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) has proven effectiveness [1]. It provides one-toone teaching via trials and exercises of increasing difficulty. The child’s progress is constantly monitored by collecting data from the child's performance of the trials, which then need to be analyzed.
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The Learning Analytic Tool
ABCD SW is an open source web application that supports learning for children with autism -- age range 2-6 years – by implementing basic ABA programs [2]. The ABCD SW modules allow the child to learn and become familiar with categories such as 'food', 'colors', 'animals', 'letters', and their articles such as 'pear', 'blue', 'cat', 'd'. The software automates the exercises while it enables recording the children’s D. Hernández-Leo et al. (Eds.): EC-TEL 2013, LNCS 8095, pp. 593–594, 2013. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013
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performance data. In order to provide teachers with an easy real-time tool for monitoring the children’s learning progress/difficulties over time, we have developed a learning analytic tool to process the large amount of data collected using ABCD SW. The tool, a web application implemented in PHP, JavaScript and jQuery, involved teachers in its design to better monitor the children’s learning, thus enabling continuous and personalized tuning of the didactic intervention. The tool offers a basic set of queries that can be arduous to perform manually. The query results are presented in table and chart format: stacked bar, multi-line and single-line. We used Highcharts, a library written in JavaScript, which offers intuitive and interactive chart for web applications. By default, a chart can be exported and downloaded as a PDF file, as an image, in PNG or JPEG formats, or as an SVG representation. It is also possible to export and download row data into CSV format to refine the data view as preferred. The tool allows the tutor to choose from among six different predefined queries: (i) the list of all the articles and (ii) categories utilized in the didactic sessions; (iii) number of articles mastered by the child; (iv) the percentage of correct trials performed by the child; (v) the percentage of different kinds of error; (vi) the percentage of occurrence of different kinds of prompts. For each query the user can select a child and set a time interval.
Fig. 1. a) Graph of number of articles mastered vs time b) Graph of error types vs time
In Fig. 1 two examples for the queries (iii) and (v) are shown in a graphic format. The data analysis tool is open source and freely available. Suggestions and comments collected from 15 users showed that the tool is greatly appreciated by ABA professionals since it eliminates the effort of manually retrieving the large amount of data produced in ABA sessions in order to evaluate the child’s performance.
References 1. Rogers, S., Vismara, L.: Evidence-based comprehensive treatments for early autism. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology 37, 8–38 (2008) 2. Buzzi, M.C., Buzzi, M., Gazzé, D., Senette, C., Tesconi, M.: ABCD SW: Autistic behavior & computer-based didactic software. In: Proceedings of the Int. Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A 2012), Article 28 , 2 pages. ACM, New York (2012)
