Terracotta is an open-source experiment builder that plugs into a learning management system (LMS) course site. Presently, a researcher can use Terracotta to easily manipulate class assignments for random groups of students, connect experimental treatments to meaningful outcomes, and export deidentified data. Terracotta also makes it easy to collect informed consent in an LMS assignment, and non-consenting students are automatically removed from any data exports. And with support from the Tools Competition, we are excited to build Terracotta Messages – a brand new service in Terracotta that will make it possible to also conduct rigorous research on personalized messages that teachers send to students.
Benjamin Motz
Assistant Professor, Indiana University
Ben Motz is a cognitive scientist working at the intersection of cognitive psychology and education. His research is characterized by large-scale experiments and analyses on students from real education settings that test theoretical predictions from the psychological science of learning. He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Indiana University, and he runs Terracotta (https://terracotta.education).