The INFACT Portal is a delivery system for computational thinking learning and teaching materials. Developers involved in the creation of INFACT materials include EdGE, (the Educational Gaming Environments group) at TERC (a not-for-profit education company in Cambridge, MA), Looking Glass Ventures/Edfinity, University of Maryland, Digital Promise. Additional research partners who are also studying how computational thinking (CT) activities can support learning include Florida State University, Knology, and University of Florida. As part of INFACT's studies, we will be recording and collecting all digital activity—including each click a user makes within the any of the online learning interactives (e.g. game and puzzles) along with downloads and navigation through the menu of offline materials.

In order to access the INFACT Portal which leads to online learning interactives and materials for offline activities, you need to register on or log onto the Portal. By registering for or logging onto the Portal, you agree to be a participant in an INFACT study, subject to the following terms:

  • All of your interactions with online learning interactives (e.g. game and puzzles) along with downloads and navigation through the menu of offline materials will be digitally recorded.
  • You may stop using the website and thus stop being recorded at any time.
  • No personally identifying information will be stored with the data.
  • IP addresses will be viewed by the software during the registration process, but IP addresses will not be stored on the INFACT Portal. IP addresses will not be viewable by researchers.
  • Some participants may be asked to take part in surveys. You can always choose whether or not to be part of these surveys.
  • All research data will be stored as digital files that will be accessible to INFACT researchers. These files will contain no personally identifying information.
  • The results of the research will be published in academic journals, presented at conferences, posted on websites, used to inform the future development, and otherwise shared.
  • Your participation in a research study does not add to your risk of being in an online environment. The results of the research will help us build better learning materials and systems.
  • You may stop using the website and thus stop being recorded at any time.
  • If you choose not to register for or log onto the site, you will not be able to access the INFACT Portal and related games, tools, and other resources.

Benefitting learners is at the heart of everything we do with the INFACT Portal, and protecting your information is no exception. This means that no cookies used on the INFACT Portal will contain personally identifiable information about you.

However, with your permission ‘cookies’ may be stored on your system to help make your visits to the INFACT Portal more effective. Data Arcade stores your session identifier in a cookie, which is set to expire upon session end or per system preferences. All cookies are encrypted and don't contain any personal data. Data Arcade does not use persistent cookies, which remain in place across multiple visits of our site, or third-party cookies from any partners, including advertisers.

Users' interactions with the INFACT Portal are being studied by the INFACT team under award U411C190179 from the Education Innovation and Research Program (EIR) of the U.S. Department of Education. The INFACT Portal is built upon the Data Arcade portal, developed and managed by EdGE and Fun Atomic (cutting-edge developers of high-quality educational games) under grants from the National Science Foundation (US), including NSF/DRK12/#1119144, NSF/TSL/#1134914, and NSF/DRK12/#1502882.

Dr. Jodi Asbell-Clarke is the Director of EdGE and a researcher on EdGE's studies, including INFACT. If you have questions, you may contact her at edge@terc.edu. If you have concerns about the research and want to talk to someone who is not on the project, you may contact Dr. Nuria Jaumot-Pascual of TERC's Oversight Board for Human Participants in Research (IRB) at nuria_jaumot-pascual@terc.edu, 617-873-9600.