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Teaching Machine: Branching Programmed Instruction

Interactive 3D model of Crowder-style branching programmed instruction: a learner token moves through a frame sequence, ability and per-frame difficulty set a logistic response probability, wrong answers detour through remedial frames, and repeated exposure raises mastery along a power-law practice curve.

Education & Learning Tools3DModerate60 FPS📱 Mobile-adapted⇄ 2D version

Long before laptops and adaptive apps, the earliest "educational technology" in the electromechanical sense was Norman Crowder's branching teaching machine: a device that showed a learner one frame of instruction, asked a question, and — depending on the answer — either advanced to the next frame or detoured through a simpler remedial frame before looping back. This simulation renders that mechanism in 3D: a 12-frame main line arcs across the scene with a remedial branch hanging below each frame, a token travels the sequence, and a logistic response model driven by learner aptitude, frame difficulty, and a power-law practice bonus decides whether each attempt succeeds. Toggle branching on or off to compare Crowder's intrinsic programming against Skinner's earlier linear teaching machine, tune aptitude and difficulty, and either step through answers by hand or let the machine auto-run.

⚙ Under the hood

A 3D model of Crowder's branching teaching machine: a learner token moves through a 12-frame sequence where a logistic response model — driven by aptitude, per-frame difficulty and a power-law practice bonus — decides whether each attempt succeeds, routing wrong answers through remedial branches.

educational technologyprogrammed instructionadaptive learninglogistic modellearning curvehistory of computing

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install