This paper presents a work-in-progress on a learning system that will provide robotics students with a personalized learning environment. This addresses both the scarcity of skilled robotics instructors, particularly in community colleges and the expensive demand for training equipment. The study of robotics at the college level represents a wide range of interests, experiences, and aims. This project works to provide students the flexibility to adapt their learning to their own goals and prior experience. We are developing a system to enable robotics instruction through a web-based interface that is compatible with less expensive hardware. Therefore, the free distribution of teaching materials will empower educators. This project has the potential to increase the number of robotics courses offered at both two- and four-year schools and universities.

The course materials are being designed with small units and a hierarchical dependency tree in mind; students will be able to customize their course of study based on the robotics skills they have already mastered. %User research will be conducted to determine if and how well students comprehend the intended content, their level of satisfaction with the system's functionality, and the system's effects on student identity and motivation. This ongoing work will describe a mini-course that employs the aforementioned concepts and evaluation.

We present an evaluation of a five module mini-course in robotics. Students indicated that they had a positive experience with the online content. They also scored the experience highly on relatedness, mastery, and autonomy perspectives, demonstrating strong motivation potential for this approach.

Collaborative Research: A Student-Centered Personalized Learning Framework to Advance Undergraduate Robotics Education, National Science Foundation PI: David Feil-Seifer, co-PI: Fredrick Harris, Sergiu Dascalu, Amount: $320,214, June 1, 2022 - May 31, 2025