ABSTRACT

Learners are novices in some work domain that they are trying to work in and learn. Learner-centered design (LCD) is a design approach aimed at developing software to support learners via scaffolding as they try to work in and learn the given work domain. Here, we focus on methods to assess the effectiveness of scaffolding strategies by presenting an initial assessment framework for observing the local “effects with” individual scaffolded features and the global “effects of the overall software. We describe dimensions by which we can assess scaffolding. We also describe strategies for understanding the “cognitive residue” of the software on the learner to define a more concrete guide for assessing learner-centered scaffolding.