iSTART 2: improvements for efficiency and effectiveness.

Full Abstract

iSTART (interactive strategy training for active reading and thinking) is a Web-based reading strategy trainer that develops students' ability to self-explain difficult text as a means to improving reading comprehension. Its curriculum consists of modules presented interactively by pedagogical agents:
an introduction to the basics of using reading strategies in the context of self-explanation, a demonstration of self-explanation, and a practice module in which the trainee generates self-explanations with feedback on the quality of reading strategies contained in the self-explanations. We discuss the objectives that guided the development of the second version of iSTART toward the goals of increased efficiency for the experimenters and effectiveness in the training. The more pedagogically challenging high school audience is accommodated by (1) a new introduction that increases interactivity, (2) a new demonstration with more and better focused scaffolding, and (3) a new practice module that provides improved feedback and includes a less intense but more extended regimen. Version 2 also benefits experimenters, who can set up and evaluate experiments with less time and effort, because pre- and posttesting has been fully computerized and the process of preparing a text for the practice module has been reduced from more than 1 person-week to about an hour's time.

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Author information

Author/s: Levinstein, Irwin B (IB); Boonthum, Chutima (C); Pillarisetti, Srinivasa P (SP); Bell, Courtney (C); McNamara, Danielle S (DS);

Affiliation: Department of Computer Science, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia 23529, USA. ibl(-atsign-)cs.odu.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Evaluation Studies; Journal Article; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

Journal: Behavior research methods (Behav Res Methods), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2007-May; vol 39 (issue 2) : pp 224-32

Dates: Created 2007/08/15; Completed 2007/09/18; Revised 2007/11/15;

PMID: 17695348, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Internet
Problem Solving
Programmed Instruction as Topic
Reading
Software Design
User-Computer Interface

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