Considerations for Dealing with Real-Time Communications in an Intelligent Team Tutoring System Experiment

In our paper we discuss an intelligent team tutoring system (ITTS) developed for a computer-based surveillance task experiment. In the experiment, two teammates worked together in a shared Virtual Battlespace 2 environment, and tutoring was provided by the Generalized Intelligent Framework for Tutoring. Feedback was triggered by the actions that the team members took, which were largely communications based. Since natural language processing software was not available in the tutor, we devised ways to measure and react to communications in real time. Team members both pushed keyboard buttons associated with the message they intended to send (which was processed by the computer and used to drive feedback) and were asked to verbally speak the same information to their teammates. In this paper, we discuss the reasoning behind the process used, challenges associated with using real-time communication in an ITTS, and initial analysis approaches that were done using the audio recordings of teammates\u27 sessions. Emphasis is placed on how to reconcile real-time inputs to the computer system with audio recordings that occurred during the session and were later used for analysis. We discuss the challenges we encountered engaging with a real-time ITTS, which relies on communications between team members, and provide suggestions on addressing these challenges for future experiments

The relationship between classroom climate, student self-efficacy and student achievement.

Master of Science in Construction Studies. University of KwaZulu-Natal. Durban, 2017.This study documents students’ perceptions and factors within the classroom that are perceived to impact upon the learning of mathematics. The participants of the study were first, second, third and fourth year students from four universities in South Africa namely University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, Durban University of Technology, Mangosuthu University of Technology and University of Johannesburg. The objectives of this study are: To discover whether students have a decrease or increase in self-efficacy, goal mastery and strategic learning within the current classroom climate. To discover whether classroom climate increases or decreases self-efficacy in the current classroom environment. To understand the student-instructor relationship within the current classroom climate with respect to achievement in mathematics. Quantitative methods were employed to understand the students’ views about their experiences with mathematics learning and mathematics classroom environment. A questionnaire to determine the objectives based on six constructs i.e. Self-Efficacy, Mastery Goal Structure, Instructors Challenges, Instructors Care, Student’ Expectations and Students’ Achievement was employed to solicit students’ views with regards to teaching approaches in mathematical classes. The findings revealed, that there is a correlation between Mastery Goal Structure, Instructors Care, Grade Expected and Instructor Challenge with Self-Efficacy. There was no significant correlation between Gender, Name of University and Student Achievement with Self-Efficacy