thesis
Design considerations of an intelligent tutoring system for programming languages
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Abstract
The overall goal of the thesis is to attempt to highlight the major topics
which must be considered in the design of any Intelligent Tutoring System and
to illustrate their application within the particular domain of LISP
programming.
There are two major sections to the thesis. The first considers the
background to the educational application of computers. It examines possible
roles for the computer, explores the relationship between education theory and
computer-based teaching, and identifies some important links among existing
Tutoring Systems. The section concludes with a summary of the design goals
which an Intelligent Tutoring System should attempt to fulfill.
The second section applies the design goals to the production of an
Intelligent Tutoring System for programming languages. It devises a formal
semantic description for programming languages and illustrates its application
to tutoring. A method for modelling the learning process is introduced. Some
techniques for maintaining a structured tutoring interaction are described.
The work is set within the methodology of Artificial Intelligence research.
Although a fully implemented tutoring system is not described, all features
discussed are implemented as short programs intended to demonstrate the
feasibility of the approach taken