Collaborative Intelligent Educational Systems: the Constraint-based Approach

Web-based distance 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. Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) are computer-based systems that provide individualised instruction, by adapting to the abilities, knowledge and needs of each student. The Intelligent Computer Tutoring Group led by Dr. Mitrovic at Canterbury University, New Zealand, has developed a successful approach (Constraint-Based Modelling) to building ITSs. This book presents COLLECT-UML, the first constraint-based ITS that supports collaboration. It teaches the design of object-oriented software, while providing feedback on collaboration between the users. The system was evaluated in two studies and was shown to be highly effective in teaching the domain knowledge as well as successful collaboration. This technique should be useful to professionals in Artificial Intelligence and Education fields, or anyone who may be developing online computer-based teaching tools.