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Download fileStudying the Effects of Personalized Language and Worked Examples in the Context of a Web-Based Intelligent Tutor
journal contribution
posted on 2006-01-01, 00:00 authored by Bruce M McLaren, Sung-Joo Lim, France Gagnon, David Yaron, Kenneth R KoedingerPrevious studies have demonstrated the learning benefit of personalized
language and worked examples. However, previous investigators
have primarily been interested in how these interventions support students
as they problem solve with no other cognitive support. We hypothesized
that personalized language added to a web-based intelligent tutor and worked
examples provided as complements to the tutor would improve student (e-
)learning. However, in a 2 x 2 factorial study, we found that personalization
and worked examples had no significant effects on learning. On the other
hand, there was a significant difference between the pretest and posttest
across all conditions, suggesting that the online intelligent tutor present in
all conditions did make a difference in learning. We conjecture why personalization
and, especially, the worked examples did not have the hypothesized
effect in this preliminary experiment, and discuss a new study we have
begun to further investigate these effects.