An intelligent tutoring system for program semantics

In this paper, the authors described an item of e-learning software that is intended to help students taking university computer science courses to understand the fundamentals of logic programming and deductive database semantics. The software is implemented in PROLOG and empowers students to explore their understanding of the semantics of logic programs and deductive databases. The software is also able to intelligently diagnose student misconceptions and includes a number of example programs/databases that permit students to test their understanding. The development and evaluation of the software was described, and details of the analysis of the results of the investigation was presented into the effectiveness of the e-learning tool. The results of the field study of the e-learning tool suggest that it of value in helping students to understand program and database semantics.