A&T SEEKS TO IMPROVE COMPUTERIZED ALGEBRA TRAINING

GREENSBORO - An improved computerized tutoring system for algebra is the goal of a new project at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University.

A&T researchers will study the dialogue between tutors and students to create precise descriptions upon which a computerized tutoring system could be based. They will then create a test version of a tutoring system to verify that these descriptions can be incorporated into computer software, and then compare them with currently available computer-aided instruction systems.

"The basis for our research is the verbal interaction between human students and human tutors," said Dr. Jung Hee Kim of A&T's Department of Computer Science, who leads the project. "The dialogue mode of tutoring has been proven to be very effective, but successful computer simulations of one-on-one language-based tutoring are rare and difficult to construct. We want to fully understand how humans use this interaction absent of technology, and then determine how technology can simulate it."

According to Kim, computerized tutoring software is becoming commonplace, but developers are just now beginning to focus efforts on dialogue-based tutoring, and this research should yield valid data which can serve as a basis for those efforts.

The study will examine many elements present in dialogue-based tutoring, such as student responses and conversational initiatives, and the language chosen by both novice and expert tutors. These elements will then serve as the basis for the test version of the tutoring system.

"The ability to imitate human tutoring dialogue is currently the subject of intense research at some of the leading artificial intelligence labs," said Kim. "The field is new, and the potential payoff is great. The research community is hungry for the kinds of results we hope to find. Furthermore, since all post-secondary institutions require some sort of algebra, the need for high-quality tutoring is apparent."

The project was awarded $199,575 for Office of Naval Research.

For more information, please contact Dr. Jung Hee Kim, NC A&T State University, (336) 334-7245.

Previous Page