O6 – Modeling Tools
One of the barriers to the entry of computer modeling in schools is the lack of tools that support educators and learners. In order to amend this situation, we propose to create two software tools that (1) allow teachers and students to create their models in a gamified way and that (2) automatically analyze their models, to check if they have been properly implemented, learn from their mistakes and get feedback to improve their models and develop their modeling skills.
Innovation. As far as the team partners know, currently there are no such tools available. These tools will support the pedagogical and practical guidelines as well as complete the online collection. The whole package of outputs will guarantee that the concept and process of modeling can be taught and learned through different approaches and by considering many different aspects.
Impact: The availability of learning supporting tools offers educators and learners a big help. Educators can rely on these tools for assessment and skill development, having the possibility of focusing on those tasks where a human educator is of major importance. Learners have a way of learning and assessing their modeling skills on their own.
Transferability. The tools will be accessible as a web tool for free and will be published on our website and be part of the online collection of COOL teaching and learning materials. They will be developed as Open Source and their source code will be offered in public repositories for others to build on top of them.
A prototype of the tool can be found at http://diagramguru.org/