Mark McDaniel

Schools have been increasing their adoption and use of online learning management systems, particularly so since the pandemic. Canvas is the most widely used learning management system (LMS) in the US, with over 7 million learners in higher education and 14 million learners in K-12 settings. Long gone are the days when the LMS was simply an administrative platform for gradebooks and file storage. Canvas has become the de facto environment for engaged online learning, ranging from discussions...

Students report that re-reading and highlighting text are their main study strategies, but such strategies are not as effective as ones that involve retrieval practice. Even though essays maximize retrieval practice, minimize exposure to errors, and encourage organization and elaboration of to-be-learned material, research on retrieval practice has not focused on the potential benefits of essay testing. On the other hand, the writing-to-learn literature has emphasized how writing can be an e...

This project builds on earlier work on Test-Enhanced Learning (TEL), a method for improving students' retention of knowledge in many different subject matters. When students are given a quiz that requires active retrieval of information, they remember that information better on a later test relative to information not previously tested (or even relative to information that is restudied but not initially tested). Active retrieval and feedback during the test are the critical processes that pr...