ITS-Engineering: providing adaptive teaching in the engineering tutor

Abstract

The successful learning of an engineering student depends substantially on the instructor's ability to adapt instruction, both the content and the various teaching styles, to individual differences among students. The emergence of computer applications in education and training, such as intelligent tutoring systems, provides a viable alternative to achieve these teaching tasks. Computerized instruction is a significant tool for the effective application of adaptive teaching. ITS-Engineering is a tutoring system shell intended to provide a developing framework for applications in the engineering domains with less time and cost. Based on R.M. Gagne's (1985) instructional design and the multiple teaching style paradigm, the application is able to deliver instruction that adapts in both content and teaching styles. The available teaching styles in ITS-Engineering include instructor oriented, guided discovery, user initiated and exploratory styles. The instructor oriented and the guided discovery style represents the teacher control paradigm. In contrast, the user initiated and the exploratory style represent the learner control paradigm. The application of these teaching styles and their adapting capabilities are demonstrated in ITS-CPM (Intelligent Tutoring System for Construction and Project Management); an ITS application developed within the framework of ITS-Engineering.