Feb 23, 2012 | 02:53
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Jan 26, 2012
Center to help PBS KIDS program assess learning outcomes
UCLA’s National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing(CRESST) has received a $100,000 award from the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) to develop an indicator and reporting system to measure game-based outcomes of the Ready to Learn PBS KIDS program.
Using their favorite PBS characters, such as Curious George or Sid the Kid, the Ready to Learn program combines content across different media — including video, online games, mobile applications and off-line activities — in order to improve math and literacy learning for children ages 2-8. The Ready to Learn program is funded by the U.S. Department of Education with PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting as partners on the project.
Applying more than 40 years of assessment and evaluation expertise, CRESST will help the RTL development team identify important game-based learning outcomes as well as build a comprehensive system for measuring and reporting outcomes to different audiences.
CRESST researchers will develop a reporting system that includes as many as 14 separate report components, ranging from the amount of time that a child plays a particular game to the skills he or she has mastered. Reports will provide information to the child, teacher, and parent with additional features, such as performance averages and trends across different groups.
CRESST director, Eva Baker will serve as the principal investigator on the project. CRESST has more than 15 years of software development experience with similar types of efforts, including the development of learning game simulations to support military training and operations.
“This is an exciting opportunity for CRESST/UCLA to have a large-scale positive impact on young children—and their parents and teachers—across America”, said Greg Chung, one of the researchers heading up the development effort together with Noelle Griffin, CRESST’s assistant director for research and development.
For more information, contact Chung at (310) 794-2392 or email greg@ucla.edu, or Noelle Griffin at (310) 825-8605 or email griffin@cse.ucla.edu. This award is contingent upon PBS KIDS and CRESST/UCLA successfully negotiating mutually agreeable intellectual property licensing terms regarding proposed deliverables.
