Empirical studies have shown that Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) are effective tools for education. However, developing an ITS is a labour-intensive and time-consuming process. A major share of the development effort is devoted to acquiring the domain knowledge that accounts for the intelligence of the system. The goal of this research is to reduce the knowledge acquisition bottleneck and enable domain experts to build the domain model required for an ITS. In pursuit of this goal an authoring system capable of producing a domain model with the assistance of a domain expert was developed. Unlike previous authoring systems, this system (named CAS) has the ability to acquire knowledge for non-procedural as well as procedural tasks. CAS was developed to generate the knowledge required for constraint-based tutoring systems, reducing the effort as well as the amount of expertise in knowledge engineering and programming required. Constraint-based modelling is a student modelling technique that assists in somewhat easing the knowledge acquisition bottleneck due to the abstract representation. CAS expects the domain expert to provide an ontology of the domain, example problems and their solutions. It uses machine learning techniques to reason with the information provided by the domain expert for generating a domain model. A series of evaluation studies of this research produced promising results. The initial evaluation revealed that the task of composing an ontology of the domain assisted with the manual composition of a domain model. The second study showed that CAS was effective in generating constraints for the three vastly different domains of database modelling, data normalisation and fraction addition. The final study demonstrated that CAS was also effective in generating constraints when assisted by novice ITS authors, producing constraint sets that were over 90% complete.

Web-based collaborative learning is becoming an increasingly popular educational paradigm as more individuals who are geographically isolated seek higher education. As such students do not meet face to face with their peers and teachers, support for collaboration becomes extremely important. Successful collaboration means asking questions to gain a better understanding of the main concepts, elaborating and justifying opinions and sharing and explaining ideas. When group members' combined skills are sufficient to complete the learning task, effective group work can result in greater overall achievement than individual learning. Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) have been shown to be highly effective at increasing students' performance and motivation. They achieve their intelligence by representing pedagogical decisions about how to teach as well as information about the learner. Constraint based tutors are a class of ITSs that use Constraint-based Modelling(CBM) to represent student and domain models. Proposed by Ohlsson, CBM is based on learning from performance errors, and focuses on correct knowledge. In this thesis, we present COLLECT-UML, a collaborative constraint-based ITS that teaches object-oriented analysis and design using Unified Modelling Language (UML). While teaching how to design UML class diagrams, COLLECT-UML also provides feedback on collaboration. Being a constraint-based tutor, COLLECT-UML represents the domain knowledge as a set of syntax and semantic constraints. However, it is the first system to also represent a higher-level skill such as collaboration using the same formalism. We started by developing a single-user ITS that supported students in learning UML class diagrams. The system was evaluated in a real classroom, and the results showed that students' performance increased significantly. We then extended the system to provide support for collaboration as well as domain-level support. The enhancement process included implementation of the shared workspace, modification of the pedagogical module to support groups of users, designing and implementing a group-modelling component, and developing a set of meta-constraints which are used to represent an ideal model of collaboration. The effectiveness of the system was evaluated in two studies. In addition to improved problem-solving skills, the participants both acquired declarative knowledge about effective collaboration and did collaborate more effectively. The participants enjoyed working with the system and found it a valuable asset to their learning. The results, therefore, show that CBM is an effective technique for modelling and supporting collaboration in computer-supported collaborative learning environments.

Dissertation / This dissertation proposes a generic methodology for evaluating intelligent tutoring systems (ITSs), and applies it to the evaluation of the SQL-Tutor, an ITS for the database language SQL. An examination of the historical development, theory and architecture of intelligent tutoring systems, as well as the theory, architecture and behaviour of the SQL-Tutor sets the context for this study. The characteristics and criteria for evaluating computer-aided instruction (CAl) systems are considered as a background to an in-depth investigation of the characteristics and criteria appropriate for evaluating ITSs. These criteria are categorised along internal and external dimensions with the internal dimension focusing on the intrinsic features and behavioural aspects of ITSs, and the external dimension focusing on its educational impact. Several issues surrounding the evaluation of ITSs namely, approaches, methods, techniques and principles are examined, and integrated within a framework for assessing the added value of ITS technology for instructional purposes. / Educational Studies / M. Sc. (Information Systems)

Dissertation / This dissertation proposes a generic methodology for evaluating intelligent tutoring systems (ITSs), and applies it to the evaluation of the SQL-Tutor, an ITS for the database language SQL. An examination of the historical development, theory and architecture of intelligent tutoring systems, as well as the theory, architecture and behaviour of the SQL-Tutor sets the context for this study. The characteristics and criteria for evaluating computer-aided instruction (CAl) systems are considered as a background to an in-depth investigation of the characteristics and criteria appropriate for evaluating ITSs. These criteria are categorised along internal and external dimensions with the internal dimension focusing on the intrinsic features and behavioural aspects of ITSs, and the external dimension focusing on its educational impact. Several issues surrounding the evaluation of ITSs namely, approaches, methods, techniques and principles are examined, and integrated within a framework for assessing the added value of ITS technology for instructional purposes. / Educational Studies / M. Sc. (Information Systems)