The Preparing for College: Using Technology to Support Achievement for Students with Learning Disabilities in Mathematics project will advance knowledge about improved learning, motivation and achievement of undergraduate students with mathematics learning disabilities when using digital interventions. This demonstration research project will result in pilot-tested interventions, which will serve as the basis for more advanced studies of how students with learning disabilities learn math in a cyber-enabled environment.
The primary intervention tool for this project is a cyber-enabled mathematics tutor, "Wayang Outpost," that helps students solve challenging test problems, teaches explicitly, and uses visual representations to help students learn. Modifications to the tutoring system will be piloted that address cognitive, metacognitive, and affective dimensions of the system, corresponding to the representation/expression and engagement strands underlying universal design for learning.
This demonstration research pilot project will include testing a series of interventions with undergraduates in developmental mathematics classes at the University of Massachusetts and at Arizona State University. The project will target approximately 200 undergraduates, with and without learning disabilities, across four classrooms in experimental and control conditions.
