ImmunIQ — Nov 2024

Context and intent

ImmunIQ is a personalized learning platform designed to teach high school students about the immune system through an intelligent tutoring system (ITS). The goal was to improve learning outcomes, engagement, and motivation by tailoring feedback based on learner stereotypes (novice vs. expert).

The core idea was simple: beginners often benefit from immediate, explanatory feedback, while more advanced learners can benefit from delayed feedback that encourages reflection and transfer.

Concept and outcome

ImmunIQ uses a stereotype based learner model that assigns users as either novice or expert based on a pre quiz or self report. Novices receive immediate feedback to reduce frustration and support knowledge gain. Experts receive delayed feedback to promote metacognition and deeper processing.

The content is split into six biology topics (including innate immunity, adaptive immunity, and blood types). Each topic contains short lessons and quizzes. Progress is gated by mastery, and the interface shows progress and unlocks new material when the learner is ready.

The prototype was built using Python (Flask), HTML, and CSS.

My role

This project was part of the Technologies for Learning course. In our team, I was the main developer and built the working prototype. I connected the learner model, feedback logic, and interface into one coherent system.

It was also my first bigger project using HTML for a full interface, and it changed how comfortable I feel building structured, user facing systems.

Reflection and learning

I underestimated how much work it would be to connect all parts of an adaptive system into a smooth user experience, especially under time pressure. As I was the only coder in the team, I took a lot of responsibility. However, this added to the pressure at the end of this project. We were very pleased with the results.

I have spent many hours into learning coding in html and JavaScript for this project, which is useful now. But the grading was focused on the concept design, and not the final product. In hindsight, I could have spent less on coding here.