In this dissertation, I investigated applying a form of machine learning, reinforcement learning, to induce tutorial tactics from pre-existing data collected from real subjects. Tutorial tactics are policies as to how the tutor should select the next action when there are multiple ones available at each step. In order to investigate whether micro-level tutorial decisions would impact students' learning, we induced two sets of tutorial tactics: the ``Normalized Gain' tutorial tactics were derived with the goal of enhancing the tutorial decisions that contribute to the students' learning while the Inverse Normalized Gain ones were derived with the goal of enhancing those decisions that contribute less or even nothing to the students' learning. The two sets of tutorial tactics were compared on real human participants. Results showed that when the contents were controlled so as to be the same, different tutorial tactics would indeed make a difference in students' learning gains. The Normalized Gain students out-performed their ``Inverse Normalized Gain' peers. This dissertation sheds some light on how to apply reinforcement learning to induce tutorial tactics in natural language tutoring systems.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-12092009-144719 |
| Date | 28 January 2010 |
| Creators | Chi, Min |
| Contributors | Kurt VanLehn, Jack Mostow, Diane J. Litman, Marek J. Druzdzel, Peter Brusilovsky |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-12092009-144719/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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