INTELLIGENT TUTORING GAMES FOR INTEREST-BASED LEARNING

INTELLIGENT TUTORING SYSTEMS SHOW PROMISE FOR IMPROVING THE EFFICIENCY OF TEACHING BY TAILORING INSTRUCTION TO EACH STUDENT'S NEEDS. THE PROPOSED RESEARCH REPRESENTS TWO INNOVATIONS OVER CURRENT INTELLIGENT TUTORING METHODOLOGY. THE FIRST INNOVATION IS INTEREST-BASED TUTORING. INSTRUCTION WILL BE SELECTED ON THE BASIS OF A MODEL OF THE STUDENT'S INTERESTS. THE SECOND INNOVATION IS THE USE OF MULTIPLE INTELLIGENT AGENTS (IN THE FORM OF GAME CHARACTERS)TO DELIVER INDIVIDUALIZED INSTRUCTION AND ENGAGE IN COLLABORATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING WITH THE STUDENT. PHASE I HASTHREE RESEARCH GOALS: (1) TO DEVELOP AND PILOT TEST A SPECIFIC INTEREST-BASED INTELLIGENT TUTORING GAME TO TEACH PROBABILITY AND STATISTICS AT THE MIDDLE SCHOOL LEVEL; (2) TO ABSTRACT THE LESSONS LEARNED TO A GENERAL METHODOLOGY FORDEVELOPING INTEREST-BASED INTELLIGENT TUTORING GAMES; AND (3) TO DEVELOP EVALUATION METHODS FOR INTEREST BASED LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS. PHASE II WILL INCLUDE: (1) A RIGOROUS EVALUATION OF THE PHASE I PROTOTYPE; (2) APPLICATION OF THE METHODOLOGY TO A TUTORING GAME IN ANOTHERAPPLICATION DOMAIN; AND (3) DEVELOPMENT OF AN ARCHITECTURE AND REUSABLE SOFTWARE COMPONENTS FOR INTEREST-BASED INTELLIGENT TUTORING GAMES. PHASE III FUNDING WILL BE SOUGHT TO BRING THE PHASE I AND II SOFTWARE PRODUCTS TO MARKET.