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The Mind-Matrix: A Learning, Instruction, and Assessment System*

Robert A. Dennis, Ph.D., Val Stamboltsian. Ph.D., & Khy Huang

Interactive Media Group, Crump Institute for Molecular Imaging UCLA School of Medicine

Despite the current climate of increased emphasis on standardized assessment, the need for a wide range of assessment formats has never been greater, and this demand has accentuated the need for new and innovative learning assessment tools. One of the greatest limiting factors of alternative or performance assessments is the increase in time and effort they require to process and interpret the flood of information that are often generated. The Mind Matrix is one effort to bridge the gap between learning and instruction with a networked computer-based, auto-scored, diagnostic assessment system (http://www.mind-matrix.org).

The Mind-Matrix is a two-part software system that implements a performance assessment format called knowledge mapping. The Mind-Matrix consists of both a client- side freestanding Java application and a complimentary backend application server. The Java-based knowledge mapping application will run on any computer that can run a Java virtual machine (JDK1.1.8). It is a stand-alone application that can communicate with the Mind-Matrix server. When used in conjunction with the Mind-Matrix server, the Mind- Matrix application is a flexible learning, instruction, and assessment system that provides valuable performance information to instructors and students. In this article, we present the theoretical background, the development context, and an overview of the most important features and capabilities of this software. In addition, we present the architecture of the software and discuss the separate software components that make up the overall assessment system. We conclude with a discussion of current work and ongoing efforts to improve and expand this learning, instruction and assessment system.

Theoretical Background

Knowledge maps are diagrammatic representations of semantic information. There are many kinds of knowledge maps and many names for very similar approaches: for example, concept maps, semantic maps, mind maps, knowledge webs, spider maps, etc. The common denominators of this family of semantic representations are nodes and links. In our work, knowledge maps are two-dimensional diagrams that use a spatial

* The Mind-Matrix is supported by a gift from the Ahmanson Foundation. We wish to express our gratitude for their generous support of our "Kids Building Learning Systems for Kids program."

Proceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright 2002, American Society for Engineering Education

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Stamboltsian, V., & Dennis, R., & Huang, K. (2002, June), The Mind Matrix Paper presented at 2002 Annual Conference, Montreal, Canada. 10.18260/1-2--11368