The Future of Assessment in STEM Lecture Series

Designing Interactive Textbooks to Engage Learners and Assess their Progress

Learner engagement and frequent formative assessment opportunities are key to student success.  In this presentation, we will demonstrate how we used XIMERA, an open-source authoring platform, to create learning materials ranging from a full-length Linear Algebra textbook to introductory lessons in statistical process control.  Linear Algebra: An Interactive Introduction features auto-graded questions, embedded geometric manipulatives, and coding exercises built directly into the narrative.  We will discuss the use of such materials inside and outside of the classroom.  We will also illustrate how event-stream data from student interactions with such a textbook can be used to gain insights into overall class performance, and individual student use patterns and progress.