Implementing Model Tracing: A New Approach

Viswanathan Kodaganallur
Seton Hall University

Friday 10th November 2006
12:00 p.m. - 12:50 p.m.
Fuller Labs 320

Cognitive (or Model-Tracing) Tutors have demonstrated effectiveness in helping students learn. Model-tracing algorithms are central to cognitive tutors, but have not been a focus of much research. The de-facto algorithm has been the one developed at Carnegie Mellon University over a decade ago. We suggest an alternative approach that eliminates the need for a depth-first iterative-deepening search that current model-tracing approaches depend on. We suggest a way of writing the production rules based on top-down goal decomposition. This approach allows planning advice to be anchored around the problem's goal structure, thereby providing the student with a rationale for the next step, and in principle strengthening the student's understanding of the underlying goal structure. We also discuss the details associated with our own ground-up implementation of a model-tracing tutor for statistical hypothesis testing using Java and JESS (with backward chaining). This work was done in collaboration with Rob Weitz and David Rosenthal.

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Dr. Viswanathan Kodaganallur is an associate professor in the department of Computing and Decision Sciences at the Stillman School of Business of Seton Hall University. Dr. Kodaganallur holds a Ph.D in Operations Research. His research has been published in Operations Research, International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education, IEEE Software, Journal of Computer Information Systems and Journal of Object-Oriented Programming, among others. His current research interests include intelligent tutoring, semantic web, managerial cybernetics and combinatorial optimization.

Host: Neil Heffernan

Refreshments will be served.