Physics Pathway: A Digital Library Filled with

Synthetic Interviews

Presented at JCDL 2011, Ottawa, Canada

June 15, 2011

Mike Christel, Scott Stevens, and Dean Zollmanchristel@cs.cmu.edu

Entertainment Technology Center

Carnegie Mellon University

Talk Outline

• What are Synthetic Interviews?

• What is Physics Pathway?

• Field use of

Physics

Pathway

• Conclusions

Synthetic Interviews

Interface and indexing technology that allows an

individual to have a fluent conversation with a figure as

if that person were present in real time

Synthetic Interviews (SIs) for Physics Teaching

• Initially, one “Master Teacher” used, but recipients

wanted broader representation of opinions

• Four in corpus: Roberta Lang, Chuck Lang, Paul

Hewitt, Leroy Salary

Physics Pathway: Motivation

Teachers relatively new to physics teaching find 1-on-1

interactions with a mentor extremely valuable, but

mentors have limited time. SIs provide virtual mentoring.

Physics Pathway: SI and Video Library

• Left panel: Synthetic

Interview interface

(focus of this work)

• Right panel: Digital video

library interface (see

www.idvl.org for more details)

Synthetic Interview Interface

• 450,365 question variants

mapping to 6,598 physics subject

or physics pedagogy topics,

covered by one to four master

teachers in 7,600 video answers

• SI interface components – a

quick walkthrough….

(try it yourself later at

http://physicspathway.org)

SI: Query Interface

Interface into library of

synthetic interviews

emphasizes “Precision at 1”

– Top-rated answer to query

is immediately played to

keep up a fluent dialog

SI: Related Question

SI: Change Teacher

SI: Shortcuts

Two menus provide “quick

starter” shortcuts identified

by KSU physics

pedagogical experts and

American Association of

Physics Teacher (AAPT)

workshops to topic areas

covered by the digital

library

SI: Query History

SI: Feedback

Synthetic Interview Interface

• 450,365 question variants

mapping to 6,598 physics subject

or physics pedagogy topics,

covered by one to four master

teachers in 7,600 video answers

• SI: video playback, related links,

choose a master teacher,

provide feedback,

show what is answered,

query area (link to ComPADRE),

related questions,

past query history,

quick questions choices

Fall 2010 Trial with Physics Teachers

• 19 high school physics teachers, 14-week trial period

• Feedback given on individual responses

• Survey computed once a week

• 588 visits to web site

• Excellent coverage of SI data set to teachers’ queries:

only two queries received a default “I don’t have an

answer to that” video response (both typos)

Lessons Learned - 1

Source of played videos during sessions: Quick

question shortcuts used less than expected

Lessons Learned - 2

• Response coverage overwhelmingly seen as appropriate

• Relevance good: 67% good or ideal, another 29%

appropriate but not personally useful

Lessons Learned - 3

Synthetic interviews validated or reinforced physics

teachers’ ideas on their course materials and delivery

Question % of Teacher-Weeks

Built lesson from ideas in Physics Pathway 4.9%

Completely changed lesson plan 2.9%

Small changes to lesson plan 12.7%

No changes, Physics Pathway reinforced plan 34.3%

Did not use ideas from Physics Pathway 38.2%

Access via The Physics Front (NSDL)

Physics Pathway is a Partner site accessible from The Physics Front.org: “A free service provided by the American Association of Physics Teachers in partnership with the NSF/NSDL” –www.thephysicsfront.org(part of ComPADRE Digital Library in NSDL)

Example search: momentum looking at “Partner Results” http://www.thephysicsfront.org/search/fedsearch.cfm?area=federate&FedQuery=momentum&AllSearch=1

Take-Home Message from Paper

• Synthetic interviews engage physics teachers in a

virtual dialog for continuing education that has been

well received in AAPT workshops and KSU-directed

field tests

• The site is available for use at both

http://physicspathway.org and via thephysicsfront.org

Credits

Many members of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and Kansas State University (KSU) contributed to this work, including:

KSU Physics Education Research Group: Dean Zollman, Brian

Adrian, Chris Nakamura, Sytil Murphy

CMU Entertainment Technology Center: Scott Stevens, Bryan

Maher, Andy Korzik, Xiaoxi Liu, Srinavin Nair

ComPADRE/NSDL Integration: Lyle Barbato, Bruce Mason

For more information: http://www.physicspathway.org/PathwayHome.html

Library of physics teaching resources accessible via thephysicsfront.org or

directly at physicspathway.org

This work supported by the National Science Foundation Teacher

Professional Continuum Program under Grants 0455772 & 0455813. A

preliminary version was supported by NSF's NSDL Program under grants

0226219 & 0226157.