CURRICULUM KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION AND MANIPULATION IN KNOWLEDGE-BASED TUTORING SYSTEMS

A Knowledge-Based Tutoring System (KBTS) is a computer-based instructi onal system that uses artificial intelligence techniques to help peopl e learn some subjects. We found that the knowledge communication proce ss involving a KBTS and a human student can be decomposed into a serie s of communication cycles, where each cycle concentrates on one topic and contains four major phases: planning, discussing, evaluating and r emedying. The major contributions of this work are the development of a generic architecture for supporting the knowledge communication betw een a KBTS and a student, and a graphical notation and schema for supp orting the curriculum knowledge representation and manipulation during the planning phase of a tutoring process. The curriculum knowledge ab out a course can help a tutoring system determine the sequences in whi ch the topics will be discussed with the students effectively and diag nose the students' mistakes. The curriculum knowledge base contains th e goal structure of the course, prerequisite relations, and multiple w ays of organizing topics, among others. As an example, we have focused on developing SQL-TUTOR, a KBTS for the domain of SQL programming. Th is system has features such as efficient control mechanism, explicit c urriculum knowledge representation, and individualized private tutorin g. For allowing the students relative freedom to decide how to study t he domain knowledge about a subject, the system provides the students with a group of operators to hand-tailor the learning schedules accord ing to their special backgrounds, requests, and interests.