Genisa: A web-based interactive learning environment for teaching simulation modelling

Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) provide students with adaptive instruction and can facilitate the acquisition of problem solving skills in an interactive environment. This paper discusses the role of pedagogical strategies that have been implemented to facilitate the development of simulation modelling knowledge. The learning environment integrates case-based reasoning with interactive tools to guide tutorial remediation. The evaluation of the system shows that the model for pedagogical activities is a useful method for providing efficient simulation modelling instruction

A generic architecture for interactive intelligent tutoring systems

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University, 07/06/2001.This research is focused on developing a generic intelligent architecture for an interactive tutoring system. A review of the literature in the areas of instructional theories, cognitive and social views of learning, intelligent tutoring systems development methodologies, and knowledge representation methods was conducted. As a result, a generic ITS development architecture (GeNisa) has been proposed, which combines the features of knowledge base systems (KBS) with object-oriented methodology. The GeNisa architecture consists of the following components: a tutorial events communication module, which encapsulates the interactive processes and other independent computations between different components; a software design toolkit; and an autonomous knowledge acquisition from a probabilistic knowledge base. A graphical application development environment includes tools to support application development, and learning environments and which use a case scenario as a basis for instruction. The generic architecture is designed to support client-side execution in a Web browser environment, and further testing will show that it can disseminate applications over the World Wide Web. Such an architecture can be adapted to different teaching styles and domains, and reusing instructional materials automatically can reduce the effort of the courseware developer (hence cost and time) in authoring new materials. GeNisa was implemented using Java scripts, and subsequently evaluated at various commercial and academic organisations. Parameters chosen for the evaluation include quality of courseware, relevancy of case scenarios, portability to other platforms, ease of use, content, user-friendliness, screen display, clarity, topic interest, and overall satisfaction with GeNisa. In general, the evaluation focused on the novel characteristics and performances of the GeNisa architecture in comparison with other ITS and the results obtained are discussed and analysed. On the basis of the experience gained during the literature research and GeNisa development and evaluation. a generic methodology for ITS development is proposed as well as the requirements for the further development of ITS tools. Finally, conclusions are drawn and areas for further research are identified

The development of a model for organising educational resources on an Intranet

The twenty-first century has found education at the crossroads of change. There are burgeoning challenges facing the modern educator. To rise to the importuning, educators find themselves turning to Information Technology for the answers. The technologies utilised in attempts to overcome the challenges often include the Internet and electronic educational resources. Although the Internet is not unduly called the Information Highway, it is also fraught with misleading and incorrect information. Educators’ arduous searches result in few good and useable resources. Thus, to store, organise and efficiently retrieve the discovered resources is a matter of time-saving. The aim of the study was to develop a method to organise and retrieve educational resources in an efficient and personalised manner. In order to do this, an exploration into pedagogy and educational paradigms was undertaken. The current educational paradigm, constructivism, proposes that each learner is an individual with unique learning and personal needs. To develop a new model, the current models need to be understood. The current solutions for the organising of educational resources are realised as several software packages, also called e-learning packages. A list of criteria that describes the essential requirements for organising educational resources was established. These criteria were based upon the pedagogical principles prescribed by educators and the practical technological frameworks necessary to fulfil the needs of the teaching/learning situation. These criteria were utilised to critique and explore the available solutions. It was found that although the available e-learning packages fulfil a need within their genre, it does not meet with the core requirements of constructivism. The resource base model seeks to address these needs by focussing on the educational aspects of resource delivery over an Intranet. For the purposes of storing, organising and delivering the resources, a database had to be established. This database had to have numerous qualities, including the ability to search and retrieve resources with great efficiency. Retrieving data in an efficient manner is the forte of the star schema, while the storing and organising of data is the strength of a normalised schema. It is not standard practice to utilise both types of schemas within the same database. A star schema is usually reserved for data warehouses because of its data retrieval abilities. It is customary to utilise a normalised schema for operational databases. The resource base model, however, needs both the storage facilities of an operational database and the efficient query facilities of a data warehouse. The resource base model, therefore, melds both schemas into one database with interlinking tables. This database forms the foundation (or the back-end) of the resource base. The resource base model utilises web browsers as its user interface (or front-end). The results of the study on the pedagogy, the current e-learning solutions and the resource base were written up within this dissertation. The contribution that this dissertation makes is the development of a technique to efficiently store, organise and retrieve educational resources in such a manner that both the requirements of constructivism and outcomes-based education are fulfilled. To this end, a list of technological and pedagogical criteria on which to critique a resource delivery technique has been developed. This dissertation also elaborates on the schema designs chosen for the resource base, namely the normalised schema and the star schema. From this schema, a prototype has been developed. The prototype’s function was two-fold. The first function is to determine the feasibility of the technique. Secondly, to determine the success of the technique in fulfilling the needs expressed in the list of criteri

Diagram-based intelligent tutoring systems

This work first presents two implementations of Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs) on engineering undergraduate-level diagram education: StaticsTutor for free-body diagram and Thermo Cycle Tutor for refrigeration T-v diagram. Initial investigations on several groups of students have shown their educational effectiveness. Unlike text-based input, diagram has some intrinsic challenges that lead it hard to teach. One example is conceptual knowledge is highly interconnected with procedural knowledge. Learned from the two ITSs, we provided some general pedagogical guidelines for the future Diagram-based ITSs. Also, we learned classes can be used as a way of representing geometric shapes in diagrams. Thus, we extended our work to the generality of how the current approach can be applied to other domains. We chose a popular type of diagram, called Block Diagram, which contains geometric objects and lines/arrows in connecting them. We developed a methodology to represent a diagram’s information and an ontology of diagram evaluation processes to diagnose students\u27 diagrams. Our work contributes to the development of Diagram-based ITSs authoring tools

Proceedings of the 1993 Conference on Intelligent Computer-Aided Training and Virtual Environment Technology, Volume 1

These proceedings are organized in the same manner as the conference's contributed sessions, with the papers grouped by topic area. These areas are as follows: VE (virtual environment) training for Space Flight, Virtual Environment Hardware, Knowledge Aquisition for ICAT (Intelligent Computer-Aided Training) & VE, Multimedia in ICAT Systems, VE in Training & Education (1 & 2), Virtual Environment Software (1 & 2), Models in ICAT systems, ICAT Commercial Applications, ICAT Architectures & Authoring Systems, ICAT Education & Medical Applications, Assessing VE for Training, VE & Human Systems (1 & 2), ICAT Theory & Natural Language, ICAT Applications in the Military, VE Applications in Engineering, Knowledge Acquisition for ICAT, and ICAT Applications in Aerospace

The adaptation of handwriting recognition system user interface in preschool literacy learning courseware

Currently, the education software or simply courseware has successfully become the heart of computer usage in classrooms. With varieties of courseware introduced, the discussion of which courseware assist students the most continues. This paper describes our experience on developing a literacy courseware named handwriting leaning number (HLN) for preschool children.HLN has adapted the handwriting recognition system interface where stylus pen becomes its input modality.By using the stylus pen, we believed that the children could perform better in writing exercise.In order to prove our assumption, we have conducted user satisfaction test using modified questionnaire for user interface satisfaction (QUIS) version 5.5.Result derived from the test indicated that the children tend to satisfy the user interface designed for HLN as the average mean score obtained was 3.864 with Standard Deviation of 0.6879.On the other hand, problems regarding precision and usability of HLN are also reported while solutions to the problems are recommended

Intelligent tutoring system for web-based education

Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) is a branch of Artificial Intelligence (AI) that attempts to simulate a "human like" tutoring capabilities.The term "intelligent" refers to a system with the ability to know what to teach, when to teach and how to teach.Such a tutoring system can be effective because it can respond to the specific needs of student, guide slow learners, challenge rapid learners and monitor the progress of each student as well as establishing a training plan.ITS have the ability to understand, learn, and solve problems just like the human counterpart.To date education trend is geering towards Web-based education.However, Web-based education is still in the early development stage and most of the base education.However, Web-based education is still in the early development stage and most of the courses offered does not contain intelligent capability in real sense.This paper discusses the state of the art of Web-based Intelligent Tutoring System and suggests way to enhance the current Web-based ITSs

Automated tutoring for a database skills training environment

The emergence of educational technology and the growth of the Internet, coupled with the rise in the number of students entering third level education, has led to a surge of online courses offered by universities. These online courses may be part of a traditional classroom based course, or they may act as an entire course by themselves. Student engagement, assessment, feedback and guidance are important parts of any course, but have an added importance for one that is presented online. Together, in the absence of a human tutor, they can greatly aid the student in the learning process. We present an automated skills training system for a database programming environment that will promote procedural knowledge acquisition and skills training. An SQL (Structured Query Language) select statement tutoring tool is an integral part of this. Targeted at students with a prior knowledge of database theory, and as part of a blended learning strategy, the system allows the student to practice SQL querying at his own time and pace. This is achieved by providing pedagogical actions that would be offered by a human tutor. Specifically, we refer to synchronous feedback and guidance based on a personalised assessment. Each of these features is automated and includes a level of personalisation and adaptation. A high-level of interaction and engagement exists between the student and the system. Students assume control of their learning experience