A curriculum based visual interface for course authoring and learning

Abstract

This paper proposes a visual model to help create and exploit curriculum based ITS. In the system, a curriculum is a capability transition network that consists of two kinds of nodes: capability nodes representing teaching outputs and transition nodes organizing tutoring activities. The bridge between capability nodes and transition nodes is the prerequisite links from capability nodes to transition nodes and the output links from transition nodes to capability nodes. In the model, domain knowledge is identified as human capabilities based on Gagné's instructional theory. Transition nodes are modeled after a combination of the task classifications proposed by Gagné and by Bloom. Visual properties of a capability transition network reflecting these categories as well as learner state can assist both curriculum authors and learners in their respective tasks.