Collaborative Dialogue with a Learning Companion as a Source of Inforamtion on Student Reasoning

This report focuses on a problem within the area of Intelligent Tutoring Systems; that of analysing student’s reasoning (student diagnosis). A novel approach to collecting information for this analysis, complementary to traditional student modelling techniques, is presented. This technique is based on using a Learning Companion, a computer based agent, as a collaboration partner to the student. In the dialogue between the student and the Learning Companion, information on their problem-solving process is revealed. This information would then be extracted and used for student modelling purposes. Analysis of the proposed solution is commenced in a small experiment and an explorative implementation described here.