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CXP-Powered I-MINDS History |
The
I-MINDS prototyping
process was initiated in September 2002 using a
In May 2003, we
conducted a pilot study. The system was
used by subjects in a controlled experiment to assess what impact it had on
student learning of Global Information Systems (GIS) content. GIS technology
can be used for scientific investigations, resource management, and development
planning. Tables 2 and 3 document the key specifics of the pilot study. On Day
1, subjects in both groups completed a 109-point pretest of the content that
was to be taught during the two sessions. At the conclusion of the class on Day
1 for both groups, the subset of 60 items that related to the content of that
class was included on the posttest. After the Day 2 instruction, the subset of
49 items that related to the content of that class constituted the posttest.
Subjects in the control group learned the identical content during each of the
two sessions, as did subjects in the experimental group. The difference was
that the control group students were in the same room as the instructor. Their
class was taught in a very traditional manner with the professor using
PowerPoint slides identical to those used for the experimental group to teach
the content. Results for the two testing sessions are encouraging. For Test 2, the amount that the I-MINDS group improved from the pretest
to the posttest was nearly twice that of the control group. Comments from the university professor who used I-MINDS
in teaching both of the content lessons were also encouraging. He indicated
that the teaching tool was very easy to learn and use. The instructor also
noted that questions asked of him via I-MINDS tended to be higher quality,
reflect a deeper understanding, and demand a richer response than those
questions posed during the control sessions.
In
the summer of 2004, we founded a startup company, I-MINDS, LLC.
In
January 2005, we received National Science Foundation (NSF) funding through the
Small Business and Innovation Research (SBIR) program.
In
May 2005, we received funding from Microsoft ConferenceXP
Program through the
In Spring and Fall 2005, we conducted tests at the Department
of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) of the