Effective User Interface design for Teachable

This paper discusses the improvements to the user interface of a system designed to promote learning through teaching. The system is an intelligent agent developed at Vanderbilt University for studying the learning by teaching paradigm and is called Betty’s Brain. In the Betty’s Brain system, students teach a computer agent, named Betty, by creating a concept map using a visual interface. Students themselves learn through the process of instructing the agent. Fifth grade students in Nashville public schools are participating in studies on this system. In this work, we analyze the interface components of Betty’s Brain that enable the user to organize and input problem solving knowledge about a domain for the purpose of instructing the intelligent agent. The existing interface was also streamlined. We then conducted a comparative user study to evaluate our changes to the interface. Both qualitative and quantitative improvements in the user’s performance are reported. These results should provide useful guidance for designers of the next generation of learning by teaching systems

A Multi-Agent Architecture Implementation of Learning by Teaching Systems

Our group has been designing and implementing learning environments that promote deep understanding and transfer in complex domains. We have adopted the learning by teaching paradigm, and developed computer-based agents that students teach, and learn from this experience. The success of teachable agents has led us to develop a multi-agent architecture that will be used to develop extended instructional systems based on gaming environments

Interface Design Issues for Teachable Agent Systems

Abstract: This paper discusses improvements to the user interface of a system designed to promote learning through teaching. This system, called Betty’s Brain, is an intelligent agent developed at Vanderbilt University for studying the learning by teaching paradigm. In the Betty’s Brain system, students teach a computer agent by creating a concept map using a visual interface. Student

Incorporating self regulated learning techniques into learning by teaching environments

This paper discusses Betty’s Brain, a teachable agent in the domain of ecosystems that combines learning by teaching with self-regulation mentoring to promote deep learning and understanding. Two studies demonstrate the effectiveness of this system. The first study focused on components that define student-teacher interactions in the learning by teaching task. The second study examined the value of adding metacognitive strategies that governed Betty’s behavior and selfregulation hints provided by a mentor agent. The study compared three versions: an intelligent tutoring version, a learning by teaching version, and a learning by teaching plus selfregulation strategies. Results indicate that the addition of the self-regulation mentor better prepared students to learn new concepts later, even when they no longer had access to the self-regulation environment

Teachable Agents: Learning by Teaching Environments for Science Domains

The crisis in science education and the need for innovative computer-based learning environments has prompted us to develop a multi-agent system, Betty’s Brain that implements the learning by teaching paradigm. The design and implementation of the system based on cognitive science and education research in constructivist, inquiry-based learning, involves an intelligent software agent, Betty, that students teach using concept map representations with a visual interface. Betty is intelligent not because she learns on her own, but because she can apply qualitative-reasoning techniques to answer questions that are directly related to what she has been taught. The results of an extensive study in a fifth grade classroom of a Nashville public school has demonstrated impressive results in terms of improved motivation and learning gains. Reflection on the results has prompted us to develop a new version of this system that focuses on formative assessment and the teaching of selfregulated strategies to improve students ’ learning, and promote better understanding and transfer.