Guided Inquiry Learning with Technology: Investigations to Support Social Constructivism

Education needs to be more scalable and more effective. Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) is an evidence-based social constructivist approach in which teams of learners work on activities that are specifically designed to guide them to understand key concepts and practice important skills. This paper describes a series of investigations of how technology might make POGIL more effective and more scalable. The investigations include a survey and structured discussions among leaders in the POGIL community, a UI mockup and a working prototype, and experiences piloting the prototype in a large introductory course. These investigations show that instructors are interested in using such tools to provide richer learning experiences for students and better reporting to help instructors monitor progress and facilitate learning. The course pilot demonstrates that a prototype could support a large class and identifies areas for future work.