mp .|
|Knowledge Tracing and Question Recommendation|
|A set of knowledge units referred to as knowledge space where refers to an arbitrary knowledge unit.|
|A matrix, where is if question is tagged with knowledge units, including and 0 otherwise.|
|A three-dimensional array, where represents the knowledge state of on at timestamp .|
|A three-dimensional array, where shows the personalised score of question for user at timestamp .|
|Reciprocal Peer Recommendation|
|A set of time slots , which denote the weekly available time slots for scheduling a study session, where refers to an arbitrary time slot.|
|A set of roles for participation in peer learning sessions where is used to present providing peer learning support, for seeking peer learning support, and for searching for study partners. refers to an arbitrary role.|
|A four-dimensional array, where indicates that user has indicated interest in participating in a study session on knowledge unit with role at timestamp .|
|A three-dimensional array in which shows the availability of user for time slot at timestamp .|
|A three-dimensional array in which shows the competency preference of user for roles at timestamp .|
|A three-dimensional array, where shows the reciprocal score between user and user at timestamp .|
4 The RiPPLE Platform
This section presents an overview of the main features and functionalities that are supported by RiPPLE.
4.1 Creating and Answering Questions
There are many benefits in engaging students as partners in co-creation of educational content [Bovill et al. (2011)], and in particular, in creation of multiple-choice questions [Denny et al. (2008)]. RiPPLE enables students to create questions and share them with their peers. Figure 1 shows the graphical interface used in RiPPLE for creating questions.
Creating a question includes the following steps:
Developing the body of the question. Text, images, videos and scientific formulas may be used in the development of the body of the question.
Tagging the question with one to four topics. The available topics are pre-defined by the instructor of the course.
Authoring the multiple-choice answers. Similar to the body of the question, Text, images, videos and scientific formulas may be used in the development of each of the multiple-choice answers.
Nominating the correct answer and developing a solution. An ideal solution includes rationale for the correctness of the right multiple-choice answer and the lack of correctness of the other multiple-choice answers.
previewing the question to make sure that it renders correctly and as expected.
submitting the question to be stored as part of the question repository.
Students are able to answer and rate questions that are available on the platform. Once they have answered a question, they are able to view the right answer, the distribution of how the question has been answered by their peers, and the explanation provided for the answer. Students are then able to rate the quality and the difficulty of the question. Figure 2 shows the graphical interface used in RiPPLE for answering questions.
RiPPLE also relies on crowdsourcing to identify inappropriate or incorrect questions. Figure 3 shows how questions may be flagged as inappropriate in RiPPLE.
Users with the “instructor” role have the ability to view, edit and delete questions that are flagged as inappropriate.
4.2 Knowledge Tracing and Recommending Questions
One of the main pages of RiPPLE, as shown in Figure 4, is dedicated to knowledge tracing and recommending questions. The top section of this page provides an interactive visualisation widget that enable learners to select their desired visualisation type for viewing their knowledge state.
“Visualisation Type” allows learners to select from a range of different visualisation techniques so that they can choose a visual display that better suits their comprehension and personal preference. RiPPLE is equipped with a set of different types of visualisations: Bar charts (as displayed in Figure 4
) are helpful in presenting rich information regarding users. Th