Towards Individualized Dialogue Support for Ill-Defined Domains

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Weerasinghe, Amali | Mitrovic, Antonija | Martin, Brent

Affiliations: Intelligent Computer Tutoring Group, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. E-mails: Amali.weerasinghe@pg.canterbury.ac.nz, Tanja.mitrovic@canterbury.ac.nz, Brent.martin@canterbury.ac.nz

Abstract: One of the critical factors contributing to the effectiveness of human tutoring is the conversational aspect of the instruction. Our goal is to develop a general model for supporting dialogues with menu-based input that could be used in both well- and ill-defined instructional tasks. We have previously studied how human tutors provide additional support to students learning with an existing intelligent tutoring system. On the basis of these findings we developed a model for supporting dialogues, which we present in this paper. We used this model in a Wizard-of-Oz study to provide adaptive support. The results show that students did learn the relevant domain knowledge and that human tutors mostly agreed with the interventions generated from the model.

Keywords: Meta-cognitive skills, tutorial dialogues

Journal: International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education, vol. 19, no. 4, pp. 357-379, 2009