Expert systems as job training aids

The author presents a proposal for the development of a general training aid that can be used with expert job aids to enhance on-the-job training. The training aid is based on a goal-directed architecture and can interact in several ways with a trainee, either passively, actively, or responsively. The focus for an initial test of the training aid will be procedure training based on an expert procedural reasoning system. It is concluded that the goal-directed design will make it possible to explore various ways of determining relevance and presenting information. For example, there is currently no connection between the procedural knowledge and a schematic representation of the system. Plans that achieve the goal of justifying a step in a procedure could be modified to utilize a schematic for explanation when one is available