Automated CATS system for distance learning

Abstract

This paper discusses a new automated training system called CATS. The proposed system covers all the main components of the educational process, including the simple and convenient formation of educational material, tasks for laboratory works, tests to check knowledge, allows you to monitor the progress of students, the process of studying educational content, check completed work for plagiarism, send incorrectly completed tasks to correction, keep an electronic journal and much more. The automated CATS system has been introduced into the educational process at the Belarusian National Technical University and is actively used, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the spring of 2020 alone, more than a thousand users have registered in the CATS system. The intellectual component in the CATS system allows you to implement a unique training program, which is based on the existing knowledge and the level of perception of the educational material by the students. As mathematical methods, it is proposed to use the analysis of expert systems, as well as artificial neural networks. These mathematical methods made it possible to develop adaptability algorithms, their software implementation and testing in the educational process. Users are provided with a web application and its mobile clients for iOS and Android operating systems. Mobile applications are localized in Russian, Belarusian, English and German. By formalizing the intellectual processes that are carried out by both the teacher and the student, it is possible to automate a certain part of their functions, reduce the cost of manual labor, which will make it easier to control the educational process, and make the training itself more effective.