Authoring Tutors with Complex Solutions: A Comparative Analysis of Example Tracing and SimStudent
Workshop Proceedings of AIED 2015
2015
Abstract
Problems with many solutions and solution paths are on the frontier of what non-programmers can author with existing tutor au- thoring tools. Popular approaches such as Example Tracing, which al- low authors to build tutors by demonstrating steps directly in the tutor interface. This approach encounters difficulties for problems with more complex solution spaces because the author needs to demonstrate a large number of actions. By using SimStudent, a simulated learner, it is pos- sible to induce general rules from author demonstrations and feedback, enabling efficient support for complexity. In this paper, we present a framework for understanding solution space complexity and analyze the abilities of Example Tracing and SimStudent for authoring problems in an experimental design tutor. We found that both non-programming ap- proaches support authoring of this complex problem. The SimStudent approach is 90% more efficient than Example Tracing, but requires spe- cial attention to ensure model completeness. Example Tracing, on the other hand, requires more demonstrations, but reliably arrives at a com- plete model. In general, Example Tracing’s simplicity makes it good for a wide range problems, a reason for why it is currently the most widely used authoring approach. However, SimStudent’s improved efficiency makes it a promising non-programmer approach, especially when solution spaces become more complex. Finally, this work demonstrates how simulated learners can be used to efficiently author models for tutoring systems.
BibTeX
@inproceedings{maclellan-aied-2015-ws,
title = {Authoring Tutors with Complex Solutions: A Comparative Analysis of Example Tracing and SimStudent},
author = {MacLellan, Christopher J. and Harpstead, Erik and Stampfer Weise, Eliane and Zou, Mengfan and Matsuda, Noboru and Aleven, Vincent and Koedinger, Kenneth R.},
booktitle = {Workshop Proceedings of AIED 2015},
year = {2015},
}