Opening the Door to Non-programmers: Authoring Intelligent Tutor Behavior by Demonstration

Abstract. Intelligent tutoring systems are quite difficult and time intensive to develop. In this paper, we describe a method and set of software tools that ease the process of cognitive task analysis and tutor development by allowing the author to demonstrate, instead of programming, the behavior of an intelligent tutor. We focus on the subset of our tools that allow authors to create “Pseudo Tutors” that exhibit the behavior of intelligent tutors without requiring AI programming. Authors build user interfaces by direct manipulation and then use a Behavior Recorder tool to demonstrate alternative correct and incorrect actions. The resulting behavior graph is annotated with instructional messages and knowledge labels. We present some preliminary evidence of the effectiveness of this approach, both in terms of reduced development time and learning outcome. Pseudo Tutors have now been built for economics, analytic logic, mathematics, and language learning. Our data supports an estima...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2004
• Where: ITS
• Authors: Kenneth R. Koedinger, Vincent Aleven, Neil T. Heffernan, Bruce M. McLaren, Matthew Hockenberry
• Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, Behavior, Intelligent Tutors, ITS 2004, Pseudo Tutors