Tutorial Dialog in an Equation Solving Intelligent Tutoring System

A new intelligent tutoring system is presented for the domain of solving equations. This system is novel, because it is an intelligent equation-solving tutor that combines a cognitive model of the domain with a model of dialog-based tutoring. The tutorial model is based on the observation of an experienced human tutor and captures tutorial strategies specific to the domain of equation-solving. In this context, a tutorial dialog is the equivalent of breaking down problems into simpler steps and asking new questions before proceeding to the next step. The resulting system, named E-tutor, was compared, via a randomized controlled experiment, to a traditional model-tracing tutor that does not engage students in dialog. Preliminary results using a very small sample size showed that E-tutor capabilities performed better than the control. This set of preliminary results, though not statistically significant, shows promising opportunities to improve learning performance by adding tutorial dialog capabilities to ITSs. The system is available at www.wpi.edu/~leenar/E-tutor.