Tutoring Rule Authoring System (TRAS)

Abstract

An authoring program, TRAS (Tutoring Rule Authoring System) has been designed and written to allow teachers and other programming-naive individuals to create and assemble the rules for rule based programs. The program has two component parts: TRE (Tutoring Rule Editor) and TPT (Text to Prolog Translator). TRE enables the user to create rules by specifying the conditional and action clauses that are to be used and inserting them into rules. With TRE the user may also delete or add clauses to rules or delete or add whole rules. As predicates or arguments are specified within the program they are automatically numbered and segregated into "choice" files. Each choice file is associated with a specific subsegment of the program being built. When the author is creating new rules or editing existing ones, the relevant choice files are displayed on the screen for possible use by the author. When the rules of a program have been completed, they may be translated into Prolog using TPT, which automatically puts each rule into the appropriate format to run as a Prolog program. Both components of TRAS have been fully implemented except for minor elements. The program is in use as part of our smart tutor development efforts.