Current Projects

This federally funded project (now completed), supported the evaluation of a number of training design systems and models focused on a learner “experience” of problems and solutions. It was intended to evaluate currently popular “experiential learning” approaches such as problem-based learning, constructivist learning and inquiry-based learning. The collaboration surrounding the report on the project has resulted in one “in press” publication and a number of grant proposals. The manuscript has been accepted by one of the three top journals in Educational Psychology, and is coauthored with colleagues in the Netherlands and Australia:

Kirschner, P., Sweller, J. and Clark, R. E. (In Press for June 2006). Why minimally guided learning does not work: An analysis of the failure of discovery learning, problem-based learning, experiential learning and inquiry-based learning. Educational Psychologist, 41(2).

The project also produced a design document that has led to another grant proposal that is currently awaiting a funding decision. The manuscript is titled:

Clark, R. E., (2004) Design document for a guided experiential learning course. Final report on contract DAAD 19-99-D-0046-0004 from TRADOC to the Institute for Creative Technology and the Rossier School of Education

This $156,000 grant from the Telemedicine And Advanced Technology Research Center (U.S. Army) supports the development and analysis of an interview strategy to capture surgical expertise so that it can be applied in training. The grant supports the continued development of a Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA) strategy that the members of the Automated Research Group in the center have been discussing for the past five years. CTA is an interview technique that captures the automated and unconscious knowledge developed by experts through trial and error so that the knowledge can be taught to novices. A number of dissertations and articles have resulted from the past research that led to this grant, including the published report of a study designed by Clark and Fredric Maupin (RSOE EdD 2004) in one of the two top surgery journals titled:

Velmahos, G. C., Toutouzas, K. G., Sillin, L. F., Chan, L., Clark, R. E. Theodorou, D. and Maupin, F. (2004) Cognitive task analysis for teaching technical skills in an inanimate surgical skills laboratory. The American Journal of Surgery, 18, 114-119.

Other dissertations developed in this area have been completed by Fredric Estes (RSOE EdD, 2001) and David Feldon (RSOE PhD, 2004). The grant currently supports a half-time post doctoral program for David Feldon, Ph.D.

Our work in Surgery education has been an attempt to provide “proof of concept” in an area considered by many to be highly complex and ambiguous. In the course of our work in Surgery we have developed many proposals with Dr. Lee Sillin, director of the Surgical Skills Training Center in the Keck School of Medicine and Dr. Carla Pugh, who just moved from her post as Director of the Surgical Educational Technology Center at Stanford University to a faculty position in the Medical School at Northwestern University. We will continue to pursue grants for research on the use of cognitive task analysis in the teaching of surgery and other professional fields. The study of cognitive task analysis will continue to be one of the important areas of study in the Center for Cognitive Technology.

This National Science Foundation ROLE grant has received three year funding of $1,743,943 to Dr. Carole Beal at USC in collaboration with Dr. Mark Lepper at Stanford. Our part of the grant is approximately $15,000 over three years. The grant examines the role of instructional methods and animated pedagogical agents in technology-based mathematics instruction for disadvantaged students in urban schools. Ms. Sunhee Choi, RSOE PhD candidate will work with Clark on the research. As a result of the work that led to the grant, Clark and Choi submitted an article which has been accepted that reviews design problems with research on pedagogical agents. The article citation is:

Clark, R. E. and Choi, Sunhee (In Press for 2005). Five design principles for the design of experiments on the effects of animated pedagogical agents. Journal of Educational Computing Research.

Our interest in technology-based science, mathematics and second language instruction will continue. We have plans to develop new proposals in this area in conjunction with RSOE and USC colleagues.

This $403,806 sub-grant from UCLA's CRESST is funded by the Office of Naval Research, and supports standard USC off-campus federal overhead. The funded project supports research on advanced computer-based tools for distributed and distance learning. The products (Rivets, iRides, and iRides Author) of this project and related earlier grants provide a technology for developing and delivering simulation-centered environments for complex learning.

This $100,000 sub-grant from UCLA's CRESST is funded by the Office of Naval Research and supports the extension of the iRides Author simulation-training development tool, and the production of prototype simulation-based learning materials.

This $681,053 contract from Navair TSD supports the design, implementation, and evaluation of a complete diagnostic performance aiding system, an advanced Interactive Electronic Technical Manual (IETM) capability, and associated systems for delivering technical expertise to technical performers around the world.

This program brings together a number of technologies developed and demonstrated by Towne over the past ten years, in the form of an integrated suite of systems for representing, processing, and facilitating the learning of complex knowledge. The resources include the explication of complex physical processes via interactive device models, artificial diagnostic reasoning to infer the identities of system failures from observable symptoms, and automated processes for generating domain knowledge from behavioral system models.

Now early in its third year, the products of this program have been selected to be the centerpiece of the simulation-based learning system under joint development by Towne at USC, Carnegie-Mellon University, and Knowledge Acquisition Technologies, Inc. This program is likely to be extended for two additional years starting in 2006, at approximately $200,000 per year.

This $21,928 contract from ARINC, a defense contractor, is funded by the United States Army and is being used to document research products and to provide technical support to a contractor developing advanced training materials using CCT technology for the Army.

This $198,424 grant from the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) supports the analysis of research on instruction, technology based learning and distance learning to derive standards for the design of distance learning programs. This grant developed, in part, out of an ONR funded research project where Drs. O’Neil (PI) and Clark designed instructional methods for distance learning. This grant, awarded to Clark, is an attempt to extend that work to include a wide variety of design standards that attempt to make distance learning more effective for a much wider range of trainees and subject matter. The grant also supports the development of a workshop that will describe, rationalize and illustrate all of the suggested design standards for use by federal agencies and others who are contracting for or supervising the design and development of distance learning programs in a variety of settings. The workshop will train participants to implement a checklist of design standards during the review of training design intended for “distributed learning” via multimedia.

This $185,000 sub-grant from UCLA's CRESST may be funded by the Navy Personnel Development Center, and will be used to produce a fieldable demonstration of the application of USC-developed learning technologies to real adult education.

This $300,000 proposal will demonstrate the feasibility of developing a family of part-task trainers using advanced USC learning technologies (iRides and iRides Author). The funding source has $16,000,000 for this and related work over the next two years. Out-year funds (US Fiscal Years 2007 and 2008) are expected to be $8,000,000/year. We plan to propose additional research and advanced development work at the level of $650,000 for each of 2006, 2007, and 2008 on this project.