Method for constructing and teaching a curriculum

A method of constructing and teaching a curriculum to a student which includes primary course components and buckets of test questions which are mapped to at least one of the primary course components. A student takes the course and completes a primary review exercise which includes selected test questions. The exercise is scored according to pre-determined thresholds to determine whether the student passes or fails the curriculum, or begins the Adaptive eLearning Process. If the student enters the Adaptive eLearning Process, the student receives automatically generated content-based Adaptive eLearning Components based upon the primary course components which are mapped to the questions which the student missed. These components may be personalized by the instructor. The student studies the Adaptive eLearning Components at pre-determined intervals prior to completing the Adaptive Component Review Exercise. The Adaptive eLearning Review Exercise tests the student on all primary course components which were mapped to the student's missed questions. The exercise includes questions from the same buckets as the student's missed questions as well as other buckets which are also mapped to those primary course components. The student's performance on the Adaptive Component Review Exercise is scored relative to pre-determined thresholds. Based on the student's accurately answered percentage score, the student will either pass the curriculum or continue the Adaptive eLearning Process. If they do not pass, then a new Adaptive eLearning Component is generated based on the questions they missed. In this way, the student continues studying and learning from the Adaptive eLearning Components until they pass the Review Exercise. If the failing and passing thresholds are set to 0 and 100, respectively, then each student will continue studying Adaptive eLearning Components until they have scored 100% on the questions covering all of the material. In this way, each student will master all of the concepts.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PRESENTLY PREFERRED EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS The overall sequence of events for a preferred embodiment of a method for constructing and teaching a curriculum according to the present invention is set forth in the flow chart of FIG. 1 . The curriculum construction begins with the selection of a plurality of primary course components 160 . These components 160 are created by the instructor using the traditional method of live stand-up classroom lectures, graphics, textbooks, or a network-based authoring and scheduling engine. The instructor may also use a combination of the above methods to prepare customized primary course component content. These components 160 may be formed from a virtually unlimited amount of static or dynamic educational content. The components 160 may be topically linked in that one component may require a pre-requisite, or be a pre-requisite, for another component. The components may be tagged according to instructor-selected criteria such as content, relationship, or qualitative weight. The components 160 may be presented by a variety of delivery methods depending on the number of students and the geographic location of the students and instructor. In one embodiment of the invention, the method can be implemented by simply viewing standard pages over a network or intranet display device. Using a network solution, the method 105 can support a virtually unlimited number of geographically separated students simultaneously. The method 105 can also be implemented using a client/server solution. Additionally, commonly available computer equipment is utilized in this method 105 and no specialized equipment such as highspeed, expensive audio or video devices is required. The instructor prepares/selects a first plurality of test questions 115 based on the primary course components 160 . Then the instructor develops at least one bucket 280 of test questions 285 selected from the first plurality of test questions which are mapped to at least one of the primary course components 160 . Each test question 285 is derived from a bucket 280 of similar, interchangeable questions which relate to the same primary course components 160 . Each question 285 in the bucket 280 can be interchanged with any other question 285 in the same bucket without altering the scope or breadth of the review exercise. These questions may be indexed by usage in one or more areas, such as the primary course review exercise 130 , the Adaptive Component Review Exercise 200 , and the primary course components 160 . The instructor prepares a primary course review exercise 130 composed of a set of review questions selected from one or more buckets 280 according to the mapping of the buckets 280 and the primary course 120 . The instructor selects a review score pass threshold 135 , i.e., a top-end threshold, and a review score fail threshold 137 , i.e., a bottom-end threshold, for the primary course review exercise 130 . The instructor has the option of setting the review top-end threshold 135 to 100% and setting the review bottom-end threshold 137 to 0% to effectively disengage this feature and require all students to enter the Adaptive eLearning Process 110 until they achieve a score of 100%. The instructor introduces and teaches the primary course 120 by live classroom teaching and/or network-based teaching. After taking this primary course 120 , the student completes the primary course review exercise 130 (i.e., an examination) which is automatically or manually scored. The curriculum method calculates the percentage of questions in the review exercise 130 which the student answered correctly and compares the student's score 139 with the review top-end threshold 135 and review bottom-end threshold 137 scores established by the instructor for the particular student or content. Based upon this information, one of three events may occur. The student's score 139 may about equal or exceed the review top-end threshold 135 and therefore the student will pass the curriculum 250 ; with no additional testing required. Alternatively, the student's score 139 may about equal or fall below the review bottom-end threshold 137 and the student will fail the curriculum 230 , and no additional testing is performed. If the student's score 139 falls about between the review top-end threshold 135 and review bottom-end threshold 137 , the student will enter the Adaptive eLearning Process 110 and receive additional review and testing based upon the mapping of questions missed 140 in the primary review exercise 130 . As illustrated in detail in FIG. 2 , the questions from the review exercise 130 which the student missed 140 are each mapped to a single test question bucket 280 , which is mapped to one or more of the primary course components 160 . The method of the Adaptive eLearning Process 110 includes automatic generation of content-based Adaptive eLearning Components 190 which include every primary course component 160 which is mapped to a test bucket 280 containing a missed question 140 . Optionally, the instructor may add new material 180 such as new curriculum components, instructor designated components, and/or knowledge silos. After a configurable delay interval 170 established by the instructor, the student studies the Adaptive eLearning Components 190 in preparation for the Adaptive Component Review Exercise 200 . As illustrated in FIG. 2 , the questions 205 in the Adaptive Component Review Exercise 200 are based upon the primary course components 160 which are mapped to the questions the student originally missed 140 . The Adaptive Component Review Exercise 200 includes at least one question 205 from each test question bucket 280 that contains a question which the student missed 140 in the previous cycle. The student does not see the same question twice unless they have exhausted all the questions in the test question bucket 280 . For example, if the student missed question 3.1 from bucket 285 on the first cycle, they might see question 3.4 on the Adaptive Component Review Exercise 200 . If we assume that each test question bucket 280 has 8 questions, then the student can miss a question from test question bucket 285 eight times before they will see the same question again. Additionally, the Adaptive Component Review Exercise 200 may contain questions 205 from test question buckets 280 that the student did not miss on the previous cycle. The reason for this is that each test question bucket 280 containing a missed question 140 is mapped back to one or more primary course components 160 . For example, questions missed 140 from test question bucket 285 are mapped to primary course components 161 and 163 . Thus, all of the test question buckets 280 which are mapped to any particular primary course component 160 are represented with at least one question 205 on the Adaptive Component Review Exercise 200 , thus ensuring well-rounded comprehension of the primary course component 160 material. Returning to FIG. 1 , it can be seen that the student's correctly answered percentage score 240 on the Adaptive Component Review Exercise 200 is compared to the adaptive top-end threshold 245 and adaptive bottom-end threshold 247 established by the instructor for the Adaptive Component Review Exercise 200 , as was done in the scoring process of the primary review exercise 130 . If the student's score 240 is about equal to or above the adaptive top-end threshold 245 , the student passes the curriculum 250 and no further study is required. If the student's score 240 is about equal to or falls below the adaptive bottom-end threshold 247 , the student fails the curriculum 230 and no further study is required. However, if the student's score 240 falls approximately between the adaptive top-end threshold 245 and adaptive bottom-end threshold 247 , the student continues the Adaptive eLearning Process 110 with the study and completion of newly generated Adaptive eLearning Components 190 and Adaptive Component Review Exercises 200 which are individualized to meet the specific needs of that student. The Adaptive eLearning Process continues until the student's correctly answered percentage score 240 on an Adaptive Component Review Exercise 200 exceeds the adaptive top-end threshold 245 , i.e, a passing score. In many cases, a very effective setting for the thresholds is 0% for failing and 100% for passing. This results in all students staying in the Adaptive eLearning process until each has effectively scored 100% on all of the material. This ensures that each student masters all the concepts. Although preferred embodiments of the method of the present invention have been illustrated in the accompanying Drawings and described in the foregoing Detailed Description, it will be understood that the invention is not limited to the embodiments disclosed, but is capable to numerous rearrangements, modifications and substitutions without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth and defined by the following claims.