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

Intelligent tutoring systems for systems engineering methodologies

The general goal is to provide the technology required to build systems that can provide intelligent tutoring in IDEF (Integrated Computer Aided Manufacturing Definition Method) modeling. The following subject areas are covered: intelligent tutoring systems for systems analysis methodologies; IDEF tutor architecture and components; developing cognitive skills for IDEF modeling; experimental software; and PC based prototype

Intelligent Programm Support for Dynamic Integrated Expert Systems Construction

AbstractThe problems of intellectualization in the development process of integrated expert systems basing on the the problem-oriented methodology and the AT-TECHNOLOGY workbench are considered. The automation of dynamic integrated expert systems construciton is in focus. The intellgient programm environment and its basic components, including standard design procedure are reviewed. The detailed description of procedure for dynamic integrated expert system construction is given. The examples of applied integrated expert system prototypes developed with described procedure are listed

Supporting Constructive Learning with a Feedback Planner

A promising approach to constructing more effective computer tutors is implementing tutorial strategies that extend over multiple turns. This means that computer tutors must deal with (1) failure, (2) interruptions, (3) the need to revise their tactics, and (4) basic dialogue phenomena such as acknowledgment. To deal with these issues, we need to combine ITS technology with advances from robotics and computational linguistics. We can use reactive planning techniques from robotics to allow us to modify tutorial plans, adapting them to student input. Computational linguistics will give us guidance in handling communication management as well as building a reusable architecture for tutorial dialogue systems. A modular and reusable architecture is critical given the difficulty in constructing tutorial dialogue systems and the many domains to which we would like to apply them. In this paper, we propose such an architecture and discuss how a reactive planner in the context of this architecture can implement multi-turn tutorial strategies

Engineering intelligent tutoring systems

We have defined an object-oriented software architecture for Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS's) to facilitate the rapid development, testing, and fielding of ITS's. This software architecture partitions the functionality of the ITS into a collection of software components with well-defined interfaces and execution concept. The architecture was designed to isolate advanced technology components, partition domain dependencies, take advantage of the increased availability of commercial software packages, and reduce the risks involved in acquiring ITS's. A key component of the architecture, the Executive, is a publish and subscribe message handling component that coordinates all communication between ITS components

Designing web-based adaptive learning environment : distils as an example

In this study, two components are developed for the Web-based adaptive learning: an online Intelligent Tutoring Tool (ITT) and an Adaptive Lecture Guidance (ALG). The ITT provides students timely problem-solving help in a dynamic Web environment. The ALG prevents students from being disoriented when a new domain is presented using Web technology. A prototype, Distributed Intelligent Learning System (DISTILS), has been implemented in a general chemistry laboratory domain. In DISTILS, students interact with the ITT through a Web browser. When a student selects a problem, the problem is formatted and displayed in the user interface for the student to solve. On the other side, the ITT begins to solve the problem simultaneously. The student can then request help from the ITT through the interface. The ITT interacts with the student, verifying those solution activities in an ascending order of the student knowledge status. In DISTILS, a Web page is associated with a HTML Learning Model (HLM) to describe its knowledge content. The ALG extracts the HLM, collects the status of students\u27 knowledge in HLM, and presents a knowledge map illustrating where the student is, how much proficiency he/she already has and where he/she is encouraged to explore. In this way, the ALG helps students to navigate the Web-based course material, protecting them from being disoriented and giving them guidance in need. Both the ITT and ALG components are developed under a generic Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA)-driven framework. Under this framework, knowledge objects model domain expertise, a student modeler assesses student\u27s knowledge progress, an instruction engine includes two tutoring components, such as the ITT and the ALG, and the CORBA-compatible middleware serves as the communication infrastructure. The advantage of such a framework is that it promotes the development of modular and reusable intelligent educational objects. In DISTILS, a collection of knowledge objects were developed under CORBA to model general chemistry laboratory domain expertise. It was shown that these objects can be easily assembled in a plug-and-play manner to produce several exercises for different laboratory experiments. Given the platform independence of CORBA, tutoring objects developed under such a framework have the potential to be easily reused in different applications. Preliminary results showed that DISTILS effectively enhanced learning in Web environment. Three high school students and twenty-two NJIT students participated in the evaluation of DISTILS. In the final quiz of seven questions, the average correct answers of the students who studied in a Web environment with DISTILS (DISTILS Group) was 5.3, and the average correct answers of those who studied in the same Web environment without DISTILS (NoDISTILS Group) was 2.75. A t-test conducted on this small sample showed that the DISTILS group students significantly scored better than the NoDISTILS group students

OntoAIMS: ontological approach to courseware authoring

In this paper we discuss how current ontology concepts can be beneficial for more flexible and semantic rich description of the authoring process and for the provision of authoring support of Intelligent Educational Systems (IES) with respect to the three main authoring modules: domain editing, course composition and resource management. We take a semantic perspective on the knowledge representation within such systems and explore the interoperability between the various ontological structures for domain, instructional and resource modeling and the modeling of the entire authoring process. We build upon our research on Authoring Task Ontology and exemplify it within OntoAIMS system. We present authoring scenarios and show their mapping with authoring task ontology. Further we discuss the OntoAIMS framework for management of electronic learning objects (resources) and their usage in the automatic generation of course templates for the authors. Finally, we describe our architecture, based on the ontological specification of the authoring process

Towards multilingual domain module acquisition

Máster y Doctorado en Sistemas Informáticos Avanzados, Informatika Fakultatea - Facultad de InformáticaDOM-Sortze is a framework for Semi-Automatic development of Domain Modules, i.e., the pedagogical representation of the domain to be learnt. DOM-Sortze generates Domain Modules for Technology Supported Learning Systems using Natural Language Processing Techniques, Ontologies and Heuristic Reasoning. The framework has been already used over textbooks in Basque language. This work presents the extension that adds English support to the framework, which is achieved with the modification of ErauzOnt. This is the tool that enables the acquisition of learning resources, definitions, examples, exercises, etc. used in the learning process. Moreover, some tests have been made to evaluate the performance of the tool with this new language. Principles of Object-Oriented Programming textbook for Object-Oriented Programming university subject is used for evaluation purposes. The results of this tests show that DOM-Sortze is not tight to a particular domain neither language