Using Quasi-Experimentation to Gather Design Information for Intelligent Tutoring Systems

Abstract

The development of any Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) requires the acquisition of diverse and extensive design information. This chapter describes what specific design information is needed to build an ITS. It outlines several issues with regard to using empirical studies to gather design information of which the ITS designer should be aware. A traditional ITS is divided into four distinct modules: expert model, student model, instructional model (which incorporates diagnostic and pedagogical processes), and the instructional environment, or user interface. The chapter briefly describes each of these components, including the types of information ITS designers should try to acquire for the specific modules. It presents two case studies of field research conducted for different ITSs, one for teaching spreadsheet programming, the other for teaching object-oriented modeling. Finally, the chapter presents some suggestions for designing and conducting quasi-experimental field research for the purpose of designing an ITS.