Wait-Learning: Leveraging Wait Time for Education.

ABSTRACTCompeting priorities in daily life make it difficult for those with a casual interest in learning to set aside time for regular practice. Yet, learning often requires significant time and effort, with repeated exposures to learning material on a recurring basis. Despite the struggle to find time for learning, there are numerous times in a day that are wasted due to micro-waiting. In my research, I develop systems for wait-learning, leveraging wait time for education. Combining wait time with productive work opens up a new class of software systems that overcomes the problem of limited time while addressing the frustration often associated with waiting. My research tackles several challenges in learning and task management, such as identifying which waiting moments to leverage; how to encourage learning unobtrusively; how to integrate learning across a diversity of waiting moments; and how to extend wait-learning to more complex domains. In the development process, I hope to understand how to manage these waiting moments, and describe essential design principles for wait-learning systems.