Quantitative structural representations of cognitive tasks for both learning and assessment in complex cognitive environments

Abstract

This study developed quantitative representations of cognitive tasks in complex learning processes. The changes of learning environment and the advancement of learning theories have been increasingly demanding to provide the information and feedback in a learning process that can describe learning progress trajectories. Stated differently, effective assessment information requires evaluating how the learners acquire knowledge and develop problem solving skills, what issues these learners have in the learning processes and why they have these issues. The study visualized that cognitive tasks are crucial points connecting both learning and assessment. Through illustrated examples, the study examined how to explore these cognitive tasks from complex learning environments, elaborate them into measureable objects, and quantitatively represent these measureable objects in cognitive structures.