Tutoring & Help System CSE-435 Nicolas Frantzen CSE-435 Nicolas Frantzen

Why Learning ? “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for the rest of his life.” Chinese Proverb “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for the rest of his life.” Chinese Proverb

How to Learn? “ I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand. ” Confucius “ I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand. ” Confucius

Overview A few facts… What are Intelligent Tutoring Systems ? General concepts of Case-Based ITS CBITS in real life : concrete examples Perspectives Demo of an ITS A few facts… What are Intelligent Tutoring Systems ? General concepts of Case-Based ITS CBITS in real life : concrete examples Perspectives Demo of an ITS The fun part !

A few facts… Intelligent Tutoring systems (ITS) were born in the 70’s Became popular in the 90’s Today about 6% of high-school in USA utilize ITS as a support in the learning process Intelligent Tutoring systems (ITS) were born in the 70’s Became popular in the 90’s Today about 6% of high-school in USA utilize ITS as a support in the learning process

What are ITS ? System that provides personalized tutoring by :  Generating problem solutions automatically  Representing the learner’s knowledge acquisition processes  Diagnosing learner’s activities  Providing advices and feedback System that provides personalized tutoring by :  Generating problem solutions automatically  Representing the learner’s knowledge acquisition processes  Diagnosing learner’s activities  Providing advices and feedback

Conventional Model

The 3 main components of an ITS… The Student Model The Pedagogical or Tutor Model The Domain Knowledge The Student Model The Pedagogical or Tutor Model The Domain Knowledge

…and their interaction

The Student Model Keeps track of all information related to the learner : Description of student behavior with regard to a specific problem Performance concerning the material being taught Misconceptions Knowledge gap Keeps track of all information related to the learner : Description of student behavior with regard to a specific problem Performance concerning the material being taught Misconceptions Knowledge gap How long should we keep the information?

The Tutor Model Information about the teaching process:  When to review ?  When to present new topics?  What topics to teach? Information about the teaching process:  When to review ?  When to present new topics?  What topics to teach? Get input from the Learner model to make its decision to reflect the differing needs of each student.

The Domain Knowledge Contains the information the tutor is teaching Most important part of the ITS Issues:  How to represent knowledge so it easily scales up to large domain?  How to represent domain knowledge other than facts and procedure (i.e. concepts and mental model)? Contains the information the tutor is teaching Most important part of the ITS Issues:  How to represent knowledge so it easily scales up to large domain?  How to represent domain knowledge other than facts and procedure (i.e. concepts and mental model)?

How to use CBR? To represent the Student model and Domain Knowledge There are different sources to obtain cases: Produced by the learner himself Experience from other learner On-demand case generation Predefined cases given by human tutors To represent the Student model and Domain Knowledge There are different sources to obtain cases: Produced by the learner himself Experience from other learner On-demand case generation Predefined cases given by human tutors

General Concepts of CBITS Where CBR technique become useful ? During the Problem Solving phase : Find similar problem solved in the past to provide learner with past experience feedback. Case-Based Adaptation Case-Base Teaching Where CBR technique become useful ? During the Problem Solving phase : Find similar problem solved in the past to provide learner with past experience feedback. Case-Based Adaptation Case-Base Teaching Eureka !!

Case-Based Adaptation Allows interactive system to adapt to a specific user (i.e CHEF cooking tutor) Can be used to adapt interface component depending on the user’s knowledge of the software Allows interactive system to adapt to a specific user (i.e CHEF cooking tutor) Can be used to adapt interface component depending on the user’s knowledge of the software

Case-Based Teaching Main goal is to provide learners with useful information (in order to understand new topics and to help during the problem solving phase). Case-Based Teaching system are either: Static (use given case base) Adaptive (learn new case from learner experience) Main goal is to provide learners with useful information (in order to understand new topics and to help during the problem solving phase). Case-Based Teaching system are either: Static (use given case base) Adaptive (learn new case from learner experience)

General Concepts of CBITS (cont’d) Different type of CBR methods: Classification Approach (used to provide help on well known pre-analyzed cases) Problem Solving Approach (to diagnose solution proposed by the learner and to identify the problem solving path used) Planning Approach (to support planning in the system) Different type of CBR methods: Classification Approach (used to provide help on well known pre-analyzed cases) Problem Solving Approach (to diagnose solution proposed by the learner and to identify the problem solving path used) Planning Approach (to support planning in the system)

Case Representation As a Complete case: Problem definition + detailed solution As Partial Case (Snippet) : Subgoals of problems + solution within different contexts As a Complete case: Problem definition + detailed solution As Partial Case (Snippet) : Subgoals of problems + solution within different contexts

CBITS in real life CBITS have been used in many different areas : Biology : INVISSIBLE (under construction) Physics : ANDES Math : ActiveMATH Jurisprudence Economics The most popular ones are: Programming : ELM-Art, SQL-Tutor, Chess : CACHET CBITS have been used in many different areas : Biology : INVISSIBLE (under construction) Physics : ANDES Math : ActiveMATH Jurisprudence Economics The most popular ones are: Programming : ELM-Art, SQL-Tutor, Chess : CACHET But Why?

Further Work Reduce development time and cost:  Using Authoring tools (API that would simplify programmer’s task to represent knowledge and teaching strategies)  Using Modularity of the student, tutor and domain models for future reuse Collaborative Learning  Allowing student to interact (help) with each other while learning with an ITS  But problem concerning modeling student knowledge and defining teaching strategies Reduce development time and cost:  Using Authoring tools (API that would simplify programmer’s task to represent knowledge and teaching strategies)  Using Modularity of the student, tutor and domain models for future reuse Collaborative Learning  Allowing student to interact (help) with each other while learning with an ITS  But problem concerning modeling student knowledge and defining teaching strategies

Developed in 1996 by Dr. Mitrovic from University of Canterbury, New-Zeland. Provide a good “on-hand” practice to student discovering SQL Teaching with example and built-in Database relations. Useful feedback is given by the system Developed in 1996 by Dr. Mitrovic from University of Canterbury, New-Zeland. Provide a good “on-hand” practice to student discovering SQL Teaching with example and built-in Database relations. Useful feedback is given by the system

The Student Model Use Constraint-Based Modeling (allows to reduce complexity by focusing on faults only)

Constraint Representation Use Pattern Recognition to match learner’s solution to possible constraints

Let’s have fun ! Start engine Demo of SQL-Tutor Start engine Demo of SQL-Tutor

What have we learn today? ITS “give” personalized instruction 3 main parts are: The Student Model The Tutor Model The Domain Knowledge CBITS use different approach: Case-Based Adaptation Case-Based Teaching (Static or Adaptive)  Classification  Problem-Solving  Planning ITS “give” personalized instruction 3 main parts are: The Student Model The Tutor Model The Domain Knowledge CBITS use different approach: Case-Based Adaptation Case-Based Teaching (Static or Adaptive)  Classification  Problem-Solving  Planning

Conclusion Still many areas in ITS are open Developing Authoring tools Increase modularity of ITS Natural language Modeling Collaborative Learning ITS are becoming more and more popular as a good assistant to human tutors Still many areas in ITS are open Developing Authoring tools Increase modularity of ITS Natural language Modeling Collaborative Learning ITS are becoming more and more popular as a good assistant to human tutors

Thank You ! Happy Halloween !!!