The level up procedure: How to measure learning gains without pre- and post-testing

Abstract

The level up procedure is a method for evaluating the learning gains of educational software, and tutoring systems in particular, that includes some form of embedded assessment. The instruction is arranged in levels that take only a few minutes to master, and students level up when the software indicates they have achieved mastery. This paper reports some methodological lessons learned from applying this procedure in studies of a tutoring system that taught high school students how to model dynamic systems.