Development of an electronic course based on the i*teach methodology with the use of the ims learnin
The paper is a demonstration of the use of active methods of learning and IMS Learning design (IMS LD) specification for the development of portable and reusable electronic course. It demonstrates how Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can enhance the process of teacher training, and how this can be used for Lifelong Competence Development of teachers. The paper shows how units of learning developed according to the IMS LD specification can integrate the contemporary active methods
Enabling Students to Construct Theories of Collaborative Inquiry and Reflective Learning: Computer S
To develop lifelong learning skills, we argue that students need to learn how to learn via inquiry and understand the sociocognitive and metacognitive processes that are involved. We illustrate how software could play a central role in enabling students to develop such expertise. Our hypothesis is that sociocognitive systems, such as those needed for collaborative inquiry and reflective learning, can best be understood as a community of interacting agents, who each have expertise in accomplishin
Authoring Intelligent Tutoring Systems:
An analysis of the state of the art
This paper consists of an in-depth summary and analysis of the research and development state of the art for intelligent tutoring system (ITS) authoring systems. A seven-part categorization of two dozen authoring systems is given, followed by a characterization of the authoring tools and the types of ITSs that are built for each category. An overview of the knowledge acquisition and authoring techniques used in these systems is given. A characterization of the design tradeoffs involved in buildi
The LEAP Authoring Tool: Supporting complex courseware authoring through reuse, rapid prototyping, a
An important goal of current work in computer-based learning environments is to develop systems that combine the richness and effectiveness of an individually crafted intelligent tutoring system (ITS) with the generality and flexibility of a computer-assisted instruction (CAI) authoring tool. Our effort to achieve this goal is demonstrated in the Learn, Explore and Practice (LEAPsm) ITS shell and its courseware development component, The LEAP Authoring Tool (LAT). The LAT was developed for use b
Using Case-Based Reasoning in Instructional Planning.Towards a Hybrid Self-improving Instructional P
This paper presents a new approach, based on the Case-Based Reasoning technique, which is useful to enhance Intelligent Tutoring Systems with learning abilities. Case-Based Reasoning is a recent paradigm for problem solving that has an inherent learning capability. So we integrate a Case-Based Instructional Planner within existing Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) to enhance the pedagogical component with learning capabilities. In this way, the enhanced tutors combine the Case-Based Instruction
Toward Computer-Based Support of Meta-Cognitive Skills: a Computational Framework to Coach Self-Expl
We present a computational framework designed to improve learning from examples by supporting self-explanation ö the process of clarifying and making more complete to oneself the solution of an example. The framework is innovative in two ways. First, it represents the first attempt to provide computer support to example studying instead of problem solving. Second, it explicitly coaches a domain-general, meta-cognitive skill that many studies in cognitive science have shown to greatly improve le
Verbal Coaching During a Real-time Task
TRANSoM is a collaborative effort among university and industry researchers aimed at producing an intelligent tutoring system for training pilots of remotely operated vehicles (ROVs). ROVs are unmanned, tethered, underwater vehicles used in a range of applications such as inspection, search and salvage, and mine countermeasures. Pilots have to learn to maneuver the ROV, keeping track of its tether and its surroundings, using little more than a video camera and sonar. To minimize workload while a
An Approach to Analyzing the Role and Structure of Reflective Dialogue
Several intelligent tutoring systems contain modules that support reflection after practice exercises. However, there is very little research on reflective dialogue and its relation to dialogue during problem solving that can guide this effort. The approach to analyzing educational dialogue described in this paper was developed to address this problem. Using statistical and machine learning methods, we compared the frequency and structure of speech acts by avionics students and experts during pr
Combining Knowledge Awareness and Information Filtering in an Open-ended Collaborative Learning Envi
Knowledge awareness (KA) has been proposed to increase collaboration opportunities in an open ended and collaborative learning environment. To encourage collaboration, an individual userâs agent called KA-Agent autonomously informs the learner about up-to-the-minute activities from other learners. For instance, a message might be ãsomeone is looking at the same knowledge that you are looking at.ä Although this message, called active KA, is very useful to create real-time collaboration, a larg
ActiveMath: A Generic and Adaptive Web-Based Learning Environment
ActiveMath is a generic web-based learning system that dynamically generates interactive (mathematical) courses adapted to the student's goals, preferences, capabilities, and knowledge. The content is presented in a semantic XML-based format. For each user, the appropriate content is retrieved from a knowledge base and the course is generated individually according to pedagogical rules. Then the course is presented to the user via a standard web-browser. One of the exceptional features of Active
A Generic Platform for the Systematic Construction of Knowledge-based Collaborative Learning Applica
This study aims to explore the importance of efficient management of event information generated from
group activity in collaborative learning practices for its further use in extracting and providing knowledge
on interaction behavior. The essential issue here is how to design a platform that can be used for real,
long-term, complex collaborative problem-solving situations and which enables the instructor to both
analyze group interaction effectively and provide an adequate support when needed.
Bridging the Gap Between Empirical Data on Open-Ended Tutorial Interactions and Computational Models
In this paper we present an approach to using empirical data on human teacher-learner interactions to guide the development of a pedagogical agent for supporting musical composition learning. Our approach to bridging the gap between tutorial interaction analysis and computational models, intended for use in learning support systems, is a new one. We support our claim by pointing out that most of the previous work in the area of using human tutors as models has been conducted in domains that are
Analysing Educational Dialogue Interaction: Towards Models that Support Learning
The motivation for this special issue on analysing dialogue interaction was provided by the one-day workshop with the same title held at AI-Ed '99 in Le Mans. From this workshop a number of common themes and issues emerged. The call for papers for this special issue was based around these themes:
* valid and reliable approaches to identifying dialogue structures and features
* the role of dialogue in learning as evidenced by dialogue analysis
* computational models of dialogue in Intelligent Edu
ML Tutor: An Application of Machine Learning Algorithms for an Adaptive Web-based Information System
One problem that commonly faces hypertext users, particularly in educational situations, is the difficulty of identifying pages of information most relevant to their current goals or interests. In this paper, we discuss the technical feasibility and the utility of applying machine learning algorithms to generate personalised adaptation on the basis of a userÕs browsing history in hypertext, without additional input from the user. In order to investigate the viability of this approach, we develo
MetaLinks: Authoring and Affordances for Conceptual and Narrative Flow in Adaptive Hyperbooks
MetaLinks, an authoring tool and web server for adaptive hyperbooks, is described. MetaLinks hyperbooks provide textbook-like content in a flexible manner that supports opportunistic processes of active reading and learning. Through adaptive methods a single on-line artifact can address the diverse needs of a variety of user goals and backgrounds. The system is designed to support inquiry, exploratory, or curiosity-driven learning in richly interconnected material and to ameliorate a number of u
Adaptive and Intelligent Web-based Educational Systems
daptive and intelligent Web-based educational systems (AIWBES) provide an alternative to the traditional “just-put-it-on-the-Web” approach in the development of Web-based educational courseware (Brusilovsky & Miller, 2001). AIWBES attempt to be more adaptive by building a model of the goals, preferences and knowledge of each individual student and using this model throughout the interaction with the student in order to adapt to the needs of that student. They also attempt to be more intelligen
MArCo: Building an Artificial Conflict Mediator to Support Group Planning Interactions
The emphasis on building co-operative/collaborative environments has brought out the matter of group interactions. This, in its turn, has highlighted the issue of conflicts, inherent to group problem solving. If well employed, conflicts can act as triggers of cognitive changes, and thus help to refine the group's solution to the task. In this paper, we present a computational framework for detecting and mediating Meta-Cognitive conflicts. The theoretical framework presented here enables a comput
Going Beyond the Problem Given: How Human Tutors Use Post-Solution Discussions to Support Transfer
Two studies investigated the role and effectiveness of post-solution, reflective dialogues in physics tutorials. The first study investigated the instructional roles of post-solution discussions, their relationship to problem-solving discussions, and features that predict learning. Seven tutors individually guided 15 students as they worked on problems in the Andes physics tutoring system. Tutors adapted the post-solution discussions to students' ability levels and their performance on the curre
Care - Making the Affective Leap: More Than a Concerned Interest in a Learner's Cognitive Abilities
This commentary addresses the issues of 'care' in intelligent learning systems more precisely, elaborating and extending the definition to include recent research from neuroscience and education on the affective aspects of learning. It reflects on the association of profound empathy with care and in what ways the systems described in this issue illustrate features of profound empathy. It concludes that though they all include some features of profound empathy they all lack an elaborate definitio
Confronting ideas in collaborative scientific discovery learning
This study investigated how collaborative knowledge construction within a scientific discovery (or inquiry)learning environment can be assisted with tools that aim to support studentsÂ’ proposition generation and testing
processes. Sixty-six fourth year pre-university education students participated in a kinematics learning task. The instructional goal of the learning activity was to develop studentsÂ’ understanding of one dimensional kinematics. All students completed a proposition test in whic
