RL Techniques for Instructional Sequencing in Education
Ronald Howard is a pioneer in proposing and using RL to adaptively order different educational activities to support the student education process, which is currently known as instructional sequencing [1]. It is well known that the order of instruction can have an impact on how effectively students learn, which attracted several researchers to address problems in this area of research [2]. For example, the authors of [3] utilized RL to enable the mathematical mechanism for formally optimizing the instructions sequence. Similarly, Atkinson [4] suggests that a theory of instruction consists of four steps: (1 ) modeling the process of learning, (2 ) specifying the permissible actions, (3 ) specifying the objectives, and (4 ) a measurement scale that allows values to be assigned to each action and the payoffs to achieving the objectives. These steps of the theory of instruction can be mapped to the MDP. See also [5].
Example:
An example of using an MDP in instructional sequencing is using two states for each knowledge component (KC ). The two states for each KC are “correct” or “incorrect”. The state of each KC is determined by the student’s results for the questions, with a correct answer resulting in the “correct” state and an incorrect answer resulting in the “incorrect” state, see [5].
Reference:
[1] Howard, R.A. Dynamic Programming and Markov Processes; MIT Press: Cambridge, MA, USA, 1960.
[2] Ritter, F.E.; Nerb, J.; Lehtinen, E.; O’Shea, T.M. In Order to Learn: How the Sequence of Topics Influences Learning; Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK, 2007.
[3] Atkinson, R.C. Ingredients for a theory of instruction. Am. Psychol. 1972, 27, 921.
[4] Atkinson, R.C. Optimizing the learning of a second-language vocabulary. J. Exp. Psychol. 1972, 96, 124
[5] Fahad Mon, B.; Wasfi, A.; Hayajneh, M.; Slim, A.; Abu Ali, N. Reinforcement Learning in Education: A Literature Review. Informatics 2023, 10, 74. https://doi.org/10.3390/informatics10030074
[2] Ritter, F.E.; Nerb, J.; Lehtinen, E.; O’Shea, T.M. In Order to Learn: How the Sequence of Topics Influences Learning; Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK, 2007.
[3] Atkinson, R.C. Ingredients for a theory of instruction. Am. Psychol. 1972, 27, 921.
[4] Atkinson, R.C. Optimizing the learning of a second-language vocabulary. J. Exp. Psychol. 1972, 96, 124
[5] Fahad Mon, B.; Wasfi, A.; Hayajneh, M.; Slim, A.; Abu Ali, N. Reinforcement Learning in Education: A Literature Review. Informatics 2023, 10, 74. https://doi.org/10.3390/informatics10030074
Author of the tip:
Ivo Nowak
HAW Hamburg