What is “Learning Science” and How Can it Help Learners Who Use Online Resources for Education?

Online learning has exploded in recent years. Many web developers and coding hobbyists are using online resources such as video or written tutorials to acquire knowledge in myriad domains. My hackathon submission explored the use of Learning Science to assist learners.

Learning Science is the study of knowledge acquisition and how humans comprehend, use and retain knowledge. It also comprises the various aids humans employ to assist them during this process. These aids attempt to improve accessibility for learners of all backgrounds and abilities.

Because learning increasingly takes place online, I decided a browser extension would be the best way to apply Learning Science. Upon reading the documentation for chrome extensions, specifically the tutorial explaining how to use an extension service worker, my plan of action was crystallized: an extension service worker, local storage and the Popover API to fetch and display tips. The tutorial provided an excellent description and I would largely copy the code in the tutorial albeit with slight changes.

The first step: create the files and save the code using the service worker example described in the chrome extension documentation. The omnibox section is omitted.

The next step: register for Google Cloud CodeRun or similar cloud provider since data is being fetched. This helps resolve CORS issues if the extension is available to the public and not just for personal use.

Upon clicking on the “tips” button in the navigation bar, learners would see a learning tip displayed in a popover on their screen — whenever a learner is consuming educational content online and is stumped, they could click on the tips button to see a learning tip. And if they are dissatisfied with the tip or do not find it relevant, they can repeatedly click on the button until they find a satisfactory tip.

The learning tips are comprised of suggestions, techniques and best practices for consuming educational information online. For example, schema theory indicates learners comprehend subject matter easier when they have some prior exposure to the topic. Bill Gates, who struggled with dyslexia as a youth offers hope for learners to overcome it with a similar suggestion:

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So one possible learning tip would be to remind the learner to familiarize themselves, even a little bit, with the content at hand before beginning to consume the educational content.

Learning tips could also include typical suggestions for recalling information such as summarizing short blocks of information and performing a self-test upon completion.

In addition, learners could be encouraged to take their time when presented with charts, tables, images, and code examples in order to effectively process information and create inferences to aid comprehension.

Thus this browser extension aims to assist learners of all learning backgrounds and learning styles. The prerequisites I foresee that developers would need to create this project are: basic knowlege of how cloud providers work, intermediate knowledge of JavaScript, basic knowledge of Node.js, basic knowledge of Express.js, and basic knowledge of HTML.