Thermo-Tutor: An Intelligent Tutoring System for thermodynamics

Author

Mitrovic, Antonija ; Williamson, Chris ; Bebbington, Aidan ; Mathews, Moffat ; Suraweera, Pramuditha ; Martin, Brent ; Thomson, David ; Holland, Jay

Author_Institution

Intell. Comput. Tutoring Group, Univ. of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand

fYear

2011

fDate

4-6 April 2011

Firstpage

378

Lastpage

385

Abstract

We present the design and an evaluation of Thermo-Tutor, an Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) that teaches thermodynamic cycles in closed systems. Thermo-Tutor provides opportunities for students to practice their skills by solving problems. When a student submits a solution, Thermo-Tutor analyzes it and provides appropriate feedback. We discuss the support for problem solving, and the student model the ITS maintains. An initial evaluation of Thermo-Tutor was performed at the University of Canterbury. The findings show that the ITS supports student learning effectively.

Keywords

intelligent tutoring systems; physics computing; thermodynamics; Thermo-Tutor; University of Canterbury; intelligent tutoring system; problem solving; student model; thermodynamics; Conferences; Engineering education; Problem-solving; Programming profession; Thermodynamics; Unified modeling language; intelligent tutoring systems; teaching thermodynamics;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON), 2011 IEEE

Conference_Location

Amman

Print_ISBN

978-1-61284-642-2

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/EDUCON.2011.5773164

Filename

5773164