Mandate

To use advanced technology in service of human educational needs

The PSI Learning Process

PSI Learning Porcess

Learning as a Controlled Process

Process control engineering uses feedback information to maintain the output of a specific process within a desired range. PSI's fundamental insight was to realize that learning is a process to which classical control concepts can be applied to improve the student success rate.

Historically, learning is a process controlled by a teacher, who monitors 'process variables' and intervenes with corrective action when necessary. Difficulties of human instruction include:

  • Controlling the educational variables in a class, given the one-to-many relationship that exists between teacher and students (there are many different learning styles and widely varying student needs, but generally only one teacher in the classroom).
  • The time lag between when students perform work, when the teacher evaluates it, and when the feedback is returned to students can significantly impair the learning process.

The PSI Approach

  • Processes student learning behaviour in real time, and provides helpful feedback at critical moments.
  • Uses an initial assessment to configure curricula on a student-by-student basis, presenting each individual with the curricula s/he needs to master, given what s/he already knows.
  • Reconfigures a student's curricula as s/he demonstrates growing mastery of the subject matter at hand.

Award

In 1992, the Applied Science Technologists and Technicians of BC issued PSI's president, Jeff Skosnik, its Advanced Technology Award for making "innovative use of process control concepts in the field of computer based learning".