SBIR Phase I: Expanding the Reach of Cognitive Tutors with a Software Development Kit

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project addresses the difficulties of authoring intelligent tutoring systems. Intelligent Tutoring Systems have proven to be highly effective in delivering computer-based instruction, but have historically been expensive and difficult to build, requiring specialized skill in Artificial Intelligence and production systems programming. This proposal describes a Software Development Kit (SDK) composed of four components: Cognitive Model Authoring, Problem Authoring, Tool Authoring, and Curriculum Authoring. The proposed research activity centers around the first of these components: Cognitive Model Authoring. Cognitive Model Authoring is comprised of three separate steps: defining an object hierarchy, defining the goal structure of the problem task, and representing the behavior of the instructional system. The proposal seeks to define an object-oriented visualization of these steps, so that non-cognitive scientists can create cognitive tutors. This tool will decrease the amount of time it an experienced cognitive modeler to author the cognitive model portion of a tutor, and it will also decrease the amount of time it takes to enable a person with no cognitive modeling experience to create cognitive models. The broader impact of the Cognitive Tutor SDK is two-fold: (1) the easier production of new Cognitive Tutors, and hence the ability to bring them to market more quickly; and (2) the development of a Software Development Kit that could be independently marketed, so that other companies can produce intelligent tutors in other domains, languages, countries and markets.