System, apparatus and method for maximizing effectiveness and efficiency of learning, retaining and retrieving knowledge and skills

Abstract

A system, method and apparatus for maximizing the effectiveness and efficiency of learning, retaining and retrieving knowledge and skills includes a main engine having a Learn Module, a Review Module and a Test Module. Each of the Learn, Review and Test Modules are capable of operating independently but are preferably arranged to operate interactively such that operation of each of the Learn, Review and Test Modules are changed based on a user's past performance within one or more of the three modules. In addition, the main engine may also include a Schedule Module for flexibly scheduling learning, reviewing and retrieving knowledge and skills based on various factors and input information. The main engine also may include a Progress Module which monitors a user's performance on any of the Learn, Review and Test Modules and changes the future operation of each module based on the monitored performance. The main engine also may include a Help Module to provide assistance with any of the other modules.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a system, apparatus and method for learning, and more specifically, relates to a system, apparatus and method for interactively and adaptively maximizing the effectiveness and efficiency of learning, retaining and retrieving knowledge and skills including flexibly scheduling learning, retaining and retrieving knowledge and skills based on various factors and input information. [0003] 2. Description of Background Art [0004] Previous systems and methods for learning have focused on presenting an item or items to be learned in a paired-associate format, such as a cue and response system. These prior art systems and methods have relied heavily on the motivation and metacognitive skills of the student and therefore, have varying degrees of effectiveness and efficiency. More importantly, such prior art methods and systems have very limited success in terms of a student actually acquiring k...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0015] To overcome the problems described above and to provide other significant and previously unattainable advantages, preferred embodiments of the present invention provide a system including various apparatuses and methods for maximizing the effectiveness and efficiency of learning, reviewing and retrieving knowledge and skills in an interactive and adaptive matter that minimizes the cognitive workload or mental effort of the user, while minimizing or eliminating forgetting of the knowledge or skills learned.

[0016] In addition, preferred embodiments of the present invention provide a system including apparatuses and methods for allowing a user to encode, store and retrieve knowledge and skills flexibly and efficiently in response to overt and covert inputs from the user or other sources of input information, such as a desired level of memory strength, the date when the knowledge or skills are needed, the schedule of availability to use the system and many other factors.

[0017] More specifically, preferred embodiments of the present invention provide a system including various apparatuses and methods for maximizing the ease of use of the system and maximizing the results of learning, retaining and retrieving of knowledge and skills by allowing a user, administrator or other input information source to interactively and flexibly input information to be learned, identify confusable items to be learned, select desired levels of initial learning and final retention of knowledge or skills, and input preferences regarding scheduling of learning, reviewing and testing and other input information relating to the learning, reviewing and testing of knowledge or skills. Based on these and other input information, the system schedules operation of the learn, review and test operations in the most efficient way to guarantee that the user achieves the desired degree of learning within the desired time period.

Problems solved by technology

More importantly, such prior art methods and systems have very limited success in terms of a student actually acquiring knowledge or skills rapidly, ensuring that the student maintains the knowledge and skills to a high degree of retention for an extended period of time, and enabling the student to retrieve knowledge and skills automatically at some future date.

The prior art methods described above have generally proven to be only marginally effective for learning, retaining and retrieving knowledge and skills.

The prior art methods often require a user to schedule and manage the learn, review and test processes which consequently consumes a portion of the cognitive workload of the user thereby reducing efficiency of learning, retaining and retrieving knowledge and skills.

By diverting some of the cognitive workload away from learning, the organism is distracted from learning and cannot devote all of the available cognitive resources to learning.

Furthermore, because the user is making subjective judgements of perceived knowledge, they provide feedback to the method that is distorted by certain cognitive illusions inherent in self-paced study.

These subjective inputs result in less effective learning than would otherwise be possible.

Furthermore, even though some of the prior art methods monitor progress of learning or reviewing or testing, future learning or reviewing or testing are not modified based on a student's actual performance results.

In addition, most prior art methods seek to train or teach knowledge or skills only to a level of recall in which a person or organism must expend significant cognitive effort to attempt to remember an item previously learned.

Conventional methods have not been successful in training or teaching knowledge or skills to a level of automaticity in which performance is characterized by an extremely rapid response without conscious effort or attention.

Although these theories, principles and concepts have been studied, they have not been quantitatively measure and applied in a synergistic and effective manner to improve learning, reviewing and retrieving knowledge and skills.

Furthermore, the prior art methods do not train a student to become a better learner by monitoring and improving their metacognitive skills, but merely provide a marginal improvement in the ability to encode and recall learned items.

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