Smart Open-Ended Learning Environments That Support Learners Cognitive and Metacognitive Processes

Metacognition and self-regulation are important for effective learning; but novices often lack these skills. Betty's Brain, a Smart Open-Ended Learning Environment, helps students develop metacognitive strategies through adaptive scaffolding as they work on challenging tasks related to building causal models of science processes. In this paper, we combine our previous work on sequence mining methods to discover students' frequently-used behavior patterns with context-driven assessments of the effectiveness of these patterns. Post Hoc analysis provides the framework for systematic analysis of students’ behaviors online to provide the adaptive scaffolding they need to develop appropriate learning strategies and become independent learners.