DEVELOPMENT, IMPLEMENTATION AND EVALUATION OF AN EXPERT-SYSTEM FOR ADVISING NAVAL MIDSHIPMEN

Career field choices can be among the most difficult decisions ever ma de by midshipmen, and advising them in this requires both experience a nd a great deal of time. This paper describes the development, impleme ntation, and evaluation of an expert system (the Service Selection Adv isor) which was designed to support the career field choices made by s enior midshipmen in Naval ROTC programs. Midshipmen at three major uni versities utilized the system as they prepared to submit their career field choices. The system was evaluated by comparing its advice to the final career field determinations made by the Navy as well as by surv eying users. The results indicate that the system gave accurate advice , performing as well as the human advisors. Additionally the system ca n reduce the human advisor workload and can increase midshipmen confid ence in career decisions. However the system was only implemented as i ntended at one university. Instructors at the other schools were not c losely enough involved in the development of the system to completely trust it with this important duty. Evaluation results to date, indicat e that the concept of this project has potential, but wide-scale use o f the system will require close coordination with instructors who are to use it.