CuVIS: An interactive tool for instructors to create effective customized learning designs with visualizations

Abstract

Instructors face difficulty in creating student-centred, customized learning designs (LDs) for teaching with information and communication technology (ICT) tools such as visualizations (animations, simulations or videos). This problem is compounded for tertiary-level instructors teaching in instructor-mediated classrooms. In such classrooms, common in many parts of the developing world, students may not have 1:1 access with the visualization and have to interact with it via the instructor. Here, the instructors’ pedagogy becomes an important factor determining effective learning with the visualization. To address this problem, a set of design impediments faced by instructors in this context were first identified. Design guidelines were created to address these impediments. These guidelines evolved into the Customized Visualization Integration System (CuVIS). It is a wizard-like interactive tool that provides guidelines to instructors on how to create effective LDs that incorporate the principles of constructive alignment and meaningful learning with ICT, and is customized to instructors’ requirements. The effectiveness of CuVIS has been tested with instructors along multiple dimensions: usefulness and usability, impact on instructors’ pedagogical practice and impact on student learning when taught with CuVIS-generated LDs.