DB-TUTOR: an intelligent tutoring system using a troublemaker companion

Many intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) using learning companion systems (LCS) have been developed. These systems involve three agents: a teacher, a student, and a companion. These systems use the idea that the social interaction has an influence on cognitive development. The basic idea is that the student can learn from his mistakes and benefit from the companion´s mistakes. The companion is sometimes looked to for assistance, and other times as a troublemaker. The goal of the learning companion is to stimulate through collaboration competition and demonstration. This paper outlines the architecture of an intelligent tutoring system based on the double test learning (DTL) strategy using two companions as co-students where one is a troublemaker. A system called DB-TUTOR is proposed to teach databases to students in the third year of the graduate cycle. The DTL strategy introduces a co-student in the learning session that receives the same training as the human student. The idea of the DTL strategy, which contains four phases, is based on the student benefiting from the co-student´s mistakes