Automatic Generation of Optimal Learning Routes

In this paper we will discuss the nature of a curriculum in Help Systems, how it can be used to guide users in opportunistic coaching, and, most importantly, how it can be generated automatically for EuroHelp domain models that do not provide such a didactic view. In EuroHelp, a shell for building Intelligent Help Systems for computer applications, curricula take the form of a network of Didactic Goals. These Didactic Goals form the basis for expanding the current knowledge of the user of the system. Their major function is the speci cation of knowledge which can more easily be acquired by a user by applying some learning principle. The learning principles are speci ed in the form of types of relations between concepts. Five types of relations are distinguished. For a given domain representation a Didactic Goal Generator automatically deduces all didactic relations between concepts o line. The mechanisms described are domain independent. The feasibility of the approach was tested in an implementation for part of the Unix Vi editor, and evaluated by comparing the results to those of human tutors.