IDEAS

Feedback services for intelligent tutoring systems

Ideas (Interactive Domain-specific Exercise Assistants) is a joint research project between the Open University of the Netherlands and Utrecht University. The project's goal is to use software and compiler technology to build state-of-the-art components for intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) and learning environments. The ideas software package provides a generic framework for constructing the expert knowledge module (also known as a domain reasoner) for an ITS or learning environment. Domain knowledge is offered as a set of feedback services that are used by external tools such as the digital mathematical environment (DME), MathDox, and the Math-Bridge system. We have developed several domain reasoners based on this framework, including reasoners for mathematics, linear algebra, logic, learning Haskell (the Ask-Elle programming tutor) and evaluating Haskell expressions, and for practicing communication skills (the serious game Communicate!).