Enhancing simulation education with intelligent tutoring systems

The demand for education in the area of simulation is in the increase. This paper describes how education in the field of simulation can take advantage of the virtues of intelligent tutoring with respect to enhancing the educational process. For this purpose, this paper gives an overview of what constitutes the objectives and the content of a comprehensive course in discrete event simulation. The architecture of an intelligent tutoring system is presented and it is discussed how these sophisticated learning aids offer individualised student guidance and support within a learning environment. The paper then introduces a prototype intelligent tutoring system, the simulation tutor, and suggests how the system might be developed to enhance education in simulation

Systematic Review of Intelligent Tutoring Systems for Hard Skills Training in Virtual Reality Environments

Advances in immersive virtual reality (I-VR) technology have allowed for the development of I-VR learning environments (I-VRLEs) with increasing fidelity. When coupled with a sufficiently advanced computer tutor agent, such environments can facilitate asynchronous and self-regulated approaches to learning procedural skills in industrial settings. In this study, we performed a systematic review of published solutions involving the use of an intelligent tutoring system (ITS) to support hard skills training in an I-VRLE. For the seven solutions that qualified for the final analysis, we identified the learning context, the implemented system, as well as the perceptual, cognitive, and guidance features of the utilized tutoring agent. Generally, the I-VRLEs emulated realistic work environments or equipment. The solutions featured either embodied or embedded tutor agents. The agents’ perception was primarily based on either learner actions or learner progress. The agents’ guidance actions varied among the solutions, ranging from simple procedural hints to event interjections. Several agents were capable of answering certain specific questions. The cognition of the majority of agents represented variations on branched programming. A central limitation of all the solutions was that none of the reports detailed empirical studies conducted to compare the effectiveness of the developed training and tutoring solutions.Peer reviewe

Towards the Prediction of User Actions on Exercises with Hints Based on Survey Results

Proceedings of: 6th European Conference of Technology Enhanced Learning, EC-TEL 2011, Palermo, Italy, September 20-23, 2011.The actions a user performs on exercises depending on the different hinting techniques applied, can be used to adapt future exercises. In this paper, we propose a survey for users in order to know their different actions depending on different conditions. The analysis of preliminary results for some questions of the model shows that there is a correlation between some survey questions and the real student actions, but there is a case in which there is not such correlation. For the cases where that correlation exists, this correlation leads to think that some prediction of users actions based on survey results is possible.Work partially funded by the Learn3 project TIN2008-05163/TSI within the Spanish “Plan Nacional de I+D+I”, and the Madrid regional community project eMadrid S2009/TIC-1650

Feasibility report: Delivering case-study based learning using artificial intelligence and gaming technologies

This document describes an investigation into the technical feasibility of a game to support learning based on case studies. Information systems students using the game will conduct fact-finding interviews with virtual characters. We survey relevant technologies in computational linguistics and games. We assess the applicability of the various approaches and propose an architecture for the game based on existing techniques. We propose a phased development plan for the development of the game

MeIPeAS: An Intelligent Virtual Tutor for Mexican Elementary Schoolchildren

Artículo en revista indizada publicado en Research in Computing ScienceIt is known that virtual tutors have a wide range of functionalities, which have been little exploited and applied in the educational field at the primary level. However, these functionalities allow to offer mechanisms of interaction with students through an interactive dialogue by using text to speech, and even more sophisticated, the recognition and understanding of natural language or speech. In this paper, a personalized virtual tutor for the primary education scenario in Mexico is presented. This virtual tutor is called Mexican Intelligent Pedagogical Agent for Schoolchildren (MeIPeAS) and was created to be used as a pedagogical support mechanism offering a unique attraction for current and future generations of schoolchildren in Mexico. The virtual tutor has been validated in practice in public primary schools of the municipalities of the State of Mexico in Mexico. This validation is to analyze the impact of the user experience from the obtained results having relevant information about the reinforcement of topics taught within the classroom

Qualitative Evaluation of the Java Intelligent Tutoring System

In an effort to support the growing trend of the Java programming language and to promote web-based personalized education, the Java Intelligent Tutoring System (JITS) was designed and developed. This tutoring system is unique in a number of ways. Most Intelligent Tutoring Systems require the teacher to author problems with corresponding solutions. JITS, on the other hand, requires the teacher to only supply the problem and problem specification. JITS is designed to “intelligently” examine the student’s submitted code and determines appropriate feedback based on a number of factors such as JITS’ cognitive model of the student, the student’s skill level, and problem details. JITS is intended to be used by beginner programming students in their first year of College or University. This paper discusses the important aspects of the design and development of JITS, the qualitative methods and procedures, and findings. Research was conducted at the Sheridan Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, Ontario, Canada