Computer-based Tutoring System Research Articles

Constraint-based and Fuzzy Logic Student Modeling for Arabic Grammar

Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) are computer-based tutoring systems that deal with linguistic skills. Adding intelligence in such systems is mainly based on using Natural Language Processing (NLP) tools to diagnose student errors, especially in language grammar. However, most such systems do not consider the modeling of student competence in linguistic skills, especially for the Arabic language. In this paper, we will deal with basic grammar concepts of the Arabic language taught for the fourth grade of the elementary school in Egypt. This is through Arabic Grammar Trainer (AGTrainer) which is an Intelligent CALL. The implemented system (AGTrainer) trains the students through different questions that deal with the different concepts and have different difficulty levels. Constraint-based student modeling (CBSM) technique is used as a short-term student model. CBSM is used to define in small grain level the different grammar skills through the defined skill structures. The main contribution of this paper is the hierarchal representation of the system's basic grammar skills as domain knowledge. That representation is used as a mechanism for efficiently checking constraints to model the student knowledge and diagnose the student errors and identify their cause. In addition, satisfying constraints and the number of trails the student takes for answering each question and fuzzy logic decision system are used to determine the student learning level for each lesson as a long-term model. The results of the evaluation showed the system's effectiveness in learning in addition to the satisfaction of students and teachers with its features and abilities.

CONSTRAINT-BASED AND FUZZY LOGIC STUDENT MODELING FOR ARABIC GRAMMAR

Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) are computer-based tutoring systems that deal with linguistic skills. Adding intelligence in such systems is mainly based on using Natural Language Processing (NLP) tools to diagnose student errors, especially in language grammar. However, most such systems do not consider the modeling of student competence in linguistic skills, especially for the Arabic language. In this paper, we will deal with basic grammar concepts of the Arabic language taught for the fourth grade of the elementary school in Egypt. This is through Arabic Grammar Trainer (AGTrainer) which is an Intelligent CALL. The implemented system (AGTrainer) trains the students through different questions that deal with the different concepts and have different difficulty levels. Constraint-based student modeling (CBSM) technique is used as a short-term student model. CBSM is used to define in small grain level the different grammar skills through the defined skill structures. The main contribution of this paper is the hierarchal representation of the system's basic grammar skills as domain knowledge. That representation is used as a mechanism for efficiently checking constraints to model the student knowledge and diagnose the student errors and identify their cause. In addition, satisfying constraints and the number of trails the student takes for answering each question and fuzzy logic decision system are used to determine the student learning level for each lesson as a long-term model. The results of the evaluation showed the system's effectiveness in learning in addition to the satisfaction of students and teachers with its features and abilities.

A Computerized Tutor Prototype for Prostate Cryotherapy: Key Building Blocks and System Evaluation.

This paper focuses on the evaluation of a prototype for a computer-based tutoring system for prostate cryosurgery, while reviewing its key building blocks and their benchmark performance. The tutoring system lists geometrical constraints of cryoprobe placement, displays a rendered shape of the prostate, simulates cryoprobe insertion, enables distance measurements, simulates the corresponding thermal history, and evaluates the mismatch between the target region shape and a pre-selected planning isotherm. The quality of trainee planning is measured in comparison with a computer-generated plan, created for each case study by a previously developed planning algorithm, known as bubble-packing. While the tutoring level in this study aims only at geometrical constraints on cryoprobe placement and the resulting thermal history, it creates a unique opportunity to gain insight into the process outside of the operation room. System validation of the tutor has been performed by collecting training data from surgical residents, having no prior experience or advanced knowledge of cryotherapy. Furthermore, the system has been evaluated by graduate engineering students having no formal education in medicine. In terms of match between a planning isotherm and the target region shape, results demonstrate medical residents' performance improved from 4.4% in a pretest to 37.8% in a posttest over a course of 50 minutes of training (within 10% margins from a computer-optimized plan). Comparing those results with the performance of engineering students indicates similar results, suggesting that planning of the cryoprobe layout essentially revolves around geometric considerations.

Comulang: towards a collaborative e-learning system that supports student group modeling

This paper describes an e-learning system that is expected to further enhance the educational process in computer-based tutoring systems by incorporating collaboration between students and work in groups. The resulting system is called “Comulang” while as a test bed for its effectiveness a multiple language learning system is used. Collaboration is supported by a user modeling module that is responsible for the initial creation of student clusters, where, as a next step, working groups of students are created. A machine learning clustering algorithm works towards group formatting, so that co-operations between students from different clusters are attained. One of the resulting system’s basic aims is to provide efficient student groups whose limitations and capabilities are well balanced.

Scripted collaborative learning with the cognitive tutor algebra

With the aim to promote students’ mathematics learning, we extended the Cognitive Tutor Algebra (CTA), a computer-based tutoring system for high school mathematics, to a collaborative setting. Furthermore we developed a collaboration script to support students’ interactions. In an experimental classroom study, we compared three conditions: scripted collaborative learning, unscripted collaborative learning, and individual learning. After a 2-day learning phase, posttests assessed individual and collaborative reproduction of knowledge and skills, and future learning. First, with the collaboration script we aimed to improve students’ interaction. Second, we assumed that due to an improved interaction students would benefit more from the learning opportunities during collaboration and, in consequence, their learning would increase as compared with the other conditions. To investigate the first assumption, we compared the interaction of a scripted dyad and an unscripted dyad. The in-depth process analyses revealed a positive impact of the script on student collaboration and problem solving during scripted interaction and in subsequent unscripted interaction. While this effect was mirrored in the learning gains of the two dyads, we could not establish a general learning effect in the quantitative between-condition comparison of student performance. Particularly for students with low prior knowledge, the removal of the script in the test phase initially entailed a decline in reproduction performance as students had to get used to the unscripted problem-solving situation. A notable finding was, however, that the collaborative conditions yielded the same outcomes as the individual condition in the individual reproduction test even though students had solved fewer problems during the learning phase and had only solved them collaboratively.

Learning to program through the web

Computer-based tutoring systems which assist students in solving introductory programming problems have significant potential for improving the quality of programming education and reducing the instructor's work load. The innovative Environment for Learning to Program (ELP) provides an interactive web-based environment for teaching programming to first year Information Technology students at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). ELP allows students to undertake programming exercises by "filling in the gaps" of a partial computer program presented in a web page and to receive guidance in getting their programs to compile and run. Feedback on quality and correctness is provided through a program analysis framework. Students are given the opportunity to produce working programs at the early stages of their course without the need to familiarize themselves with a complex program development environment.

Value streams in science & technology: A case study of value creation and intelligent tutoring systems

AbstractScience and technology (S&T) involves a broad community of investors, sponsors, investigators, adopters, and end‐users. This wide range of stakeholders adds value in a variety of ways, resulting in what are termed value streams. This article focuses on elaborating and formalizing S&T value streams. This formulation is evaluated in the context of a case study of computer‐based intelligent tutoring systems. The value streams identified in this context span several decades of S&T investments, R&D in numerous organizations, and deployments in a variety of school settings. Insights gained from this case study enable proposing a general model of value creation in S&T. The phenomena embodied in this model suggest several central hypotheses. Approaches to evaluating these hypotheses are discussed. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Syst Eng 6: 76–91, 2003

Improving Students' Ability to Identify and Use Source Information

Sourcing, contextualization, and corroboration are document-level literacy skills that experts routinely use when working with history documents. These are also skills that educators and curricula planners expect students to acquire. We examine high school and college students' current degree of proficiency with these skills and describe our development and evaluation of a computer-based tutoring system designed to teach these skills. We observed that high school and college students who were asked to read multiple documents did not spontaneously attend to source information. Based on analyses of expert and intermediate behavior, we developed the Sourcer's Apprentice, a computer-based tutorial and practice environment for teaching students to source and corroborate while reading history texts. In 3 evaluation studies we found that students who used the Sourcer's Apprentice in place of regular classroom activity or a textbook-centered version of the same content improved at sourcing, contextualization, and corroboration on a transfer test. The Sourcer's Apprentice group also wrote essays on the topic that were more integrated, cited more sources, and referenced more information from primary and secondary sources than the comparison group.

Intelligent Interactive Tutoring Systemfor Engineering Mechanics

Engineering education has traditionally been imparted through the lecture-tutorial-laboratory paradigm. Education technology in the last few years has tried to make teaching more effective by supplementing the chalkboard teaching with audiovisual aids like overhead/slide projectors and videos. These are, however, passive teaching tools. Recent advancement in computer multimedia has brought in a new teaching medium. Multimedia education has several advantages; most noticeably, the instructions can be interactive and self-paced to meet the needs of each individual student. The writers have developed an Intelligent Interactive Tutoring System for engineering mechanics for the first-year engineering students at the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. The main objective of this system was to supplement classroom teaching via intelligent interaction with the computer-based tutoring system. This system is designed to be a self-paced virtual tutor with intelligent, user-friendly interactions. It is intended to be different from the many commercially available computerized textbooks. The prototype system was tried out with about 200 students who had earlier failed the course in the first semester and repeated it in the second semester of academic year 1997–1998. The system received good response from the students. The full version was implemented on the Nanyang Technological University Intranet and the Internet for use by the regular class of more than 1,600 students in both academic years 1998–1999 and 1999–2000.

Learning Java: a programmed instruction approach using Applets

A programmed instruction approach to knowledge acquisition is operationalized by student–teacher interactions that involve monitoring and managing the moment-by-moment progress of a learner throughout the process of achieving a criterion of mastery in a knowledge domain. The teacher is generic and may include another person, a structured text, or a computer. When the steps and increments leading to a task's completion and mastery can be enumerated, the process of interaction-based learning lends itself to implementation with computer-based tutoring systems. The present paper describes a computer-based programmed instruction tutoring system that teaches a learner how to write a simple Java™ computer program. The system is based on a series of Java Applets, which are computer programs that are downloaded from a network server and executed by a client browser such as Netscape®. The use of Java Applets makes the tutoring system available to learners over the World Wide Web. Performance acquisition data are presented to show an individual learner's progression to task completion and mastery using the tutoring system. Survey data are presented to show the subjective responses of a class of students to the use of the tutoring system. The adoption of this computer-based tutoring system is justified as one component within a personalized system of instruction that also includes lectures and collaborative learning experiences.

The VProf Tutor: Teaching MD-11 Vertical Profile Navigation Using GT-ITACS

The VProf Tutor is a computer-based intelligent tutoring system (ITS) that teaches the use and understanding of vertical profile navigation modes to MD-11 pilots. This ITS is a proof-of-concept implementation of GT-ITACS (Georgia Tech-Intelligent Tutoring Architecture for Complex Systems). GT-ITACS is a domain- and platform- independent intelligent tutoring system shell designed to train operators of complex-dynamic systems. This paper introduces the features of GT-ITACS, using the VProf Tutor to illustrate the capabilities of the system.

Framework of a Decision-Theoretic Tutoring System for Learning of Mechanics.

This paper presents the application of decision-theoretic technique to computer-based tutoring system for elementary mechanics. The technique uses sound probabilistic reasoning and a student model to identify learner's misconception(s). Bayesian belief networks are the building blocks of the student model. The probability values in Bayes' nets are provided by teacher and are based on her judgement, but may be substituted with actual statistics. Evidence on student's mastery of concepts is obtained through her responses to appropriately selected items. Subsequently, Rasch one-parameter model is used to calibrate the item and person parameters (also known as difficulty and ability indices, respectively). The system is able to provide teacher with information for fine-tuning her pedagogical instructions and guide her in coaching students. It is also able to provide students with immediate feedback to improve their proficiencies and ultimately their grades.

Help seeking, learning and contingent tutoring

The focus of this paper is the application of the theory of contingent tutoring to the design of a computer-based system designed to support learning in aspects of algebra. Analyses of interactions between a computer-based tutoring system and 42, 14- and 15-year-old pupils are used to explore and explain the relations between individual differences in learner–tutor interaction, learners’ prior knowledge and learning outcomes. Parallels between the results of these analyses and empirical investigations of help seeking in adult–child tutoring are drawn out. The theoretical significance of help seeking as a basis for studying the impact of individual learner differences in the collaborative construction of ‘zones of proximal development’ is assessed. In addition to demonstrating the significance of detailed analyses of learner–system interaction as a basis for inferences about learning processes, the investigation also attempts to show the value of exploiting measures of on-line help seeking as a means of assessing learning transfer. Finally, the implications of the findings for contingency theory are discussed, and the theoretical and practical benefits of integrating psychometric assessment, interaction process analyses, and knowledge-based learner modelling in the design and evaluation of computer-based tutoring are explored.

Expertise, models of learning and computer-based tutoring

In a wide and diverse range of contexts, from academic disciplines through to games and sports, analyses of what it takes to be judged an expert have established a number of common claims. In this paper, we identify and discuss the theoretical significance of this research in relation to a formal, computational theory of expertise (EPAM). The main thrust of our paper is the argument that the theory both helps to identify and explain theoretical limitations on some influential approaches to computer-based tutoring, and offers a means of overcoming some of these. We argue that, without ‘knowledge-based’ models of the learning process, attempts to develop effective, computer-based tutoring systems have achieved limited progress towards the goal of helping learners to construct links between their procedural knowledge and conceptual understanding. Current knowledge-based approaches to learner modelling need to be developed in two main directions to reach this goal. First, they will have to integrate a theoretically sound account of the relation between perception and memory (such as that developed within the EPAM approach) in order to build upon what has already been achieved to date in relating processes of learning, memory and problem solving. Second they need an extended theory of declarative (or conceptual) knowledge and its relation to procedural skills. We illustrate how the EPAM model of expertise can be exploited towards these ends, and draw out a number of implications for the design and current limitations of computer-based tutoring systems.

Learning and retention with a menu and a command line interface

Within the context of a computer-based tutoring system, 36 participants initially learned sequences of commands to satisfy common file, directory, and process manipulations with UNIX 1 UNIX is a trademark of UNIX System Laboratories, Inc. 1 . Each of three task objectives required correctly entering four lines of command sequences with one of three different interface conditions. Learning occurred with a menu interface (recognition), a command line interface (recall), and a combination menu-command line interface (recognition-plus-recall). The criterion of task mastery was three successive help-free and error-free iterations through an interface condition. After a four-week interval with no interface exposure, the task was repeated. The results showed that performance on both menu and command line interfaces, as evidenced by requests for help, error frequency, and trials to task mastery, required relearning after the period of disuse. The command line interface was generally associated with higher levels of performance than the menu interface, especially during retention testing. The components of the combined interface interacted, but transfer of learning between them was incomplete.

Effective Feedback Content for Tutoring Complex Skills

Feedback during learning is critical for evaluating new skills. Computer-based tutoring systems have the potential to detect errors and to guide students by providing informative feedback, but few studies have evaluated the real impact of different types of feedback. This article presents results of such a study using the Geometry Tutor for building geometry proofs. It was found that feedback about the goal structure of geometry problems led to better performance than feedback about the reasons for error or than simply being told that an error had occurred. This goal feedback allows students to correct the incorrect action more often than other types of feedback. Also, the goal feedback group continued to deal advantageously with problems when the feedback was subsequently removed. A simulation model, based on Anderson's (1983) ACT* theory and an analogical learning system, presents a preliminary model of the effects of these different feedback types. The model indicates that the advantage of goal-directed feedback is a reflection of its immediate application to the problem, whereas feedback about reasons for the error does not provide any direction to the correct error. According to the model, the feedback allows the student to construct a correct representation of the goal tree involved in various types of proofs more readily than feedback that is not immediately relevant to the current problem.

Soviet Applications of Microcomputers in Education: Developments in Research and Practice during the Gorbachev Era

In 1985, the USSR inaugurated a major program to teach computer literacy to all secondary school students in the country. That program is discussed here first in light of several trends in Soviet education during the past twenty years; the courses and resources which support the program are then characterized, and the system of hardware and software development that supports the effort is described. Some research directions that are related to the program are then discussed. These include: a broad attempt to use computing to encourage the development of a variety of cognitive functions; a series of efforts intended to link research in pedagogy to the design of computerized instructional programs; and, as an example of the latter, a specific project to design intelligent computer-based tutoring systems. Finally, the likelihood of success for the program is assessed in the context of limited resources, limited goals, and centralized control. Soviet educators probably have a good chance to add computer literacy to the curriculum, but in a narrower sense than the way that subject is commonly conceived in the West.