ITS and SCORM

Xiangen Hu, Andrew Olney, Eric Mathews, Art GraesserThe University of Memphis

Agenda

• AutoTutor

• ADL and SCORM

• ITS and SCORM2004

• Summary

AutoTutor

Tutoring

• Effective Tutoring Involves the Student: (Graesser, Person, and Magliano 1995; Chi 1996)

– Taking an active role in knowledge construction

– Asking questions– Generating their own explanations– Recognizing their misconceptions– Synthesizing information

Tutoring

• Untrained tutors are effective (Bloom 1984; Cohen, Kulik, and Kulik 1982; Graesser and Person 1994)

• Possible explanations for tutoring effectiveness: (Graesser, Person, and Magliano 1995)

– Interactive dialog– Collaborative construction of knowledge– Explanations are generated– Concrete examples– Deep reasoning questions

AutoTutor

• A computer program that is designed to tutor students in computer literacy and conceptual physics.

• Simulates the tutoring strategies used by human tutors.

• AutoTutor interacts with students and covers topic material in the course of a conversation.

AutoTutor

Language Extraction

Speech actclassifier

LatentSemanticAnalysis

CurriculumScript

AnimatedAgent

Dialog Management

Topic/ProblemSelection

When a car without headrests on the seats is struck from behind, the passengers often suffer neck injuries. Why do passengers get neck injuries in this situation?

QuestionHead Simulation

Parameter Controls Describe what

happens

ADL and SCORM

What is ADL?

Advanced

Distributed

Learning

Advanced Distributed Learning:What’s New?

• Advanced Technologies– Advanced delivering technology– Advanced assessment

methodologies

• Advanced Learning Paradigms– Cognitive theory of learning– Intelligent tutoring

• Advanced Standards– Shareable learning objects– Anyone, anywhere, anytime, any

system

Distributed Learning

Distributed Learning

EmbeddedTraining

EmbeddedTraining

DistributedSimulationDistributedSimulation

PerformanceAssessment

PerformanceAssessment

Digital KnowledgeLibraries

Digital KnowledgeLibraries

OfficeOffice

SchoolSchool

HomeHome FieldField

In TransitIn Transit

ADL Co-Labs and Partnership Labs

An open collaborative environment for sharing learning technology research, development, and assessments.

ADL Vision

ADL STRATEGYAny TimeAny WhereLearning

Right Time Right PlaceLearning

Classroom

Electronic Classroom• CBT/CD-ROMs

Distributed Learning• web-based modular content• intelligent tutors• interoperability and reuse• wide spread collaboration

Distance Learning• web-based Classroom• video tele-training

Strategy

• Exploit existing network-based technologies• Create platform-neutral, reusable courseware and

content to lower costs• Promote wide spread collaboration to satisfy

common needs • Enhance performance with emerging and next-

generation learning technologies • Develop common framework that drives COTS

product cycle• Establish a coordinated implementation process

Explore the technology for “learning objects”

Functional Requirements for “learning objects”

– Accessibility: access instructional components from one remote location and deliver them to many other locations

– Interoperability: use instructional components developed in one location, with one set of tools or platform, in another location, with a different set of tools or platform

– Adaptability: tailor instruction to individual and situational needs– Reusability: incorporate instructional components into multiple

applications– Durability: operate instructional components when base

technology changes, without redesign or recoding– Affordability: increase learning effectiveness significantly while

reducing time and costs

ADL “SCORM”

– Need of standards• Best practice in all other industries

– Proven methodology• Object oriented

– Cutting edge technology• xml based

– “SCORM”• Sharable Content Object Reference Model

– Innovated Strategy • ADL Co-Labs• PlugFest

ITS and SCORM2004

ITS basics

• Two Levels of questions– What material does the tutor want to cover with the

student?• Knowledge of the domain• Teacher’s model• Student’s Model

– How does the tutor present the material during the session?

• Teaching knowledge• Tactics• Theory driven

TopicNewton’s Laws

SubtopicPumpkin Problem

SubtopicCar Collision

SubtopicElevator Problem

Answer Element1

Answer ElementK

Hint1

Prompt1

Elaboration1

HintN

PromptN

ElaborationN

AnswerConstruction

Introduction“Two cars...

Summary“Because...

SCORM2004 SN• Sequencing and Navigation

– Activity Tree• Smallest unit is SCO

– Clustering• Allows structuring to

implement knowledge structure

– Rollup Rollover• Dynamic sequencing adaptive

to the users• Capable of answering the first

question of ITS– Organize knowledge

• Not a standard for the second level question– Theory neutral

Course

Module 3

Chapter 1

Lesson 02

Lesson 01

Module 2

Lesson 03

Lesson 02

Lesson 01

Lesson 04

Module 1

Lesson 02

Lesson 01

Chapter 2

Course

Module 3

Chapter 1

Lesson 02

Lesson 01

Module 2

Lesson 03

Lesson 02

Lesson 01

Lesson 04

Module 1

Lesson 02

Lesson 01

Chapter 2

Cluster A

Cluster B

Cluster ECluster C

ClusterD

Formal Models

• Need of formal model– Having a standard, one needs a model

• An ITS model that model Teacher/Student Interaction– ITS contains

• A set of items• A relation among the items

– ITS • Presents a stimulus to students• Receive a response from students

– ITS • Assign (numerical) values to any combination of stimulus/response

pair• Store interaction history• Select next item as stimulus based on probability distribution that

is conditional to the prior interaction history.

Formal Models

• Two types of Models for ITS– knowledge based

• REDEEM (Ainsworth and Wood 2004): Advanced Planning

– uncertainty based• Markov Decision Processes (Matsuda & Van Lehn,

2001): Based on interaction between tutor and student

Summary

Summary

• ITS are theory driven in nature– Teaching tactics emphasize effective micro

dialog/interaction between tutor and student– Highly individualized, tailored to user learning

style– Smallest unit may be simple feedback such as

hint or prompt– Probability of selecting next item is

determined by specific teaching tactics

Summary

• SCORM SN emphasize higher level knowledge structure– Theory neutral– Provide basic selection mechanism at the

level of knowledge structure– Have difficulty covering all teaching tactics as

standard– The concept of assets allow ITS objects

handle micro interactions, but not capable capture detailed interaction at the asset level

End

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