A Tutoring System for Novices Learning Object-Oriented Design

Dr Glenn Blank
CSE Department, Lehigh University

Friday 1st December 2006
11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Fuller Labs 320

Learning object-oriented design and programming is a challenging task for many beginning students. The DesignFirst-ITS (intelligent tutoring system) supports a novel curriculum for CS1 courses, subsuming an "objects first" approach into lessons that also introduce object-oriented analysis and design, using elements of UML before implementing any code. The ITS coordinates student learning in two different client programs: web-based multimedia courseware and a UML plug-in for the Eclipse IDE, each of which post student interactions to a server-based databases. Also on the server, the Expert Evaluator analyzes student work in the IDE, comparing novice with expert solutions. The Student Model combines knowledge from the expert evaluator and the multimedia in "Atomic" Bayesian networks that guarantee real time analysis of students' current and developing understanding of object-oriented concepts as well as problem-solving strategies. Finally, the Pedagogical Advisor, guided by updates from the student model as well as a learning styles inventory, interacts with the learner by selecting from several possible tutorial strategies.

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Glenn D. Blank, Associate Professor of Computer Science at Lehigh University, develops curricula and tools designed to increase accessibility into computer science. The CIMEL (Constructive Inquiry-Based Multimedia E-Learning) project created interactive multimedia courseware, including a CS1 course covering the breadth of computer science and an "objects first" approach to Java. The DesignFirst-ITS project is developing a tutoring system in support of a "design first" approach to learning software development. The S.T.A.R.T. (Students That Are Ready for Technology) project seeks to widen the pipeline of at-risk middle and high school students pursuing college and careers in information technology, with summer and weekend programs including programming remotely controlled mobile robots in a simulated Martian landscape, creating a web-based music juke box using Macromedia Flash, and enhancing a "design-first" approach to learning Java, for AP credit.

Host: Neil Heffernan

Refreshments will be served.