Barbara Means (Digital Promise)
Abstract
The last four years have brought a dramatic expansion of generative AI capabilities such that powerful gen AI tools are now readily available to anyone with a smart phone. Large language models can provide fluent—and usually correct—answers to statistical problems in an instant. Is this changing everything, or changing nothing, in statistics and data science education? Within higher education systems, course learning objectives and teaching methods are slow to change, but now students have new ways of responding to them, and those behaviors are not always conducive to building understanding and enduring learning. Still, the basic nature of human learning processes, as elucidated through decades of learning sciences research, has not changed.
This keynote will discuss (1) theory-based and research-backed instructional strategies that have shown evidence of positive impacts on student engagement and learning and (2) how those strategies can be applied in a world where an AI chatbot is just one click away. Major influences on how students approach learning materials and course requirements include mindsets, task interpretation, and expectations of required effort versus potential payoff. Emerging findings show that while AI tools affect these important motivational variables, instructor practices and grading policies do as well. The keynote will propose systemic changes to both what we assess and how we assess student learning.
Bio: Barbara Means, PhD is Senior Principal Learning Sciences Researcher at Digital Promise, where she studies the implementation and effectiveness of educational innovations supported by technology. Currently, she leads large-scale studies of courseware implementation and efficacy in gateway college courses. These efforts include the Statistics Teaching and Technology Studies (STATS), which have examined teaching and learning in more than 100 introductory statistics classes taught in over 50 community and four-year colleges. A fellow of the American Educational Research Association, Dr. Means has advised the U.S. Department of Education on national educational technology plans for both K-12 and postsecondary education. She has authored or edited a half dozen books related to learning and technology research. She also has served on many study panels related to science education for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, including the panels that produced How People Learn I and How People Learn II.