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Intelligent Tutoring Systems: Navigating the Rocky Road to Success

  • Conference paper
New Directions in Educational Technology

Part of the book series: NATO ASI Series ((NATO ASI F,volume 96))

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Abstract

This paper is concerned with basic methodological and sociological factors which increasingly may affect the success of research into intelligent tutoring systems. In particular, seven factors which could impede progress in the field are presented: the limited number of success models, the lack of shared perspectives among researchers, the inability to transfer methods and results between research projects, the field’s weak theoretical foundations, the inadequate methodologies used to validate research, the poor research and reporting practices of researchers, and the lack of understanding of intelligent tutoring systems by people external to the field. The nature of each of these obstacles is analyzed in detail, not only showing how each obstacle may now or in the future impede progress in the field, but also examining how it can be overcome. The paper concludes with optimism about the future of intelligent tutoring systems as a research area, an optimism which is tempered by the realization of just how daunting some of these obstacles are.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. ARIES Laboratory Department of Computational Science, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, S7N 0W0, Canada

    Gordon I. McCalla

Authors
  1. Gordon I. McCalla
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Educational Technology, The Open University, Walton Hall, MK7 6AA, Milton Keynes, UK

    Eileen Scanlon  & Tim O’Shea  & 

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© 1992 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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McCalla, G.I. (1992). Intelligent Tutoring Systems: Navigating the Rocky Road to Success. In: Scanlon, E., O’Shea, T. (eds) New Directions in Educational Technology. NATO ASI Series, vol 96. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-77750-9_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-77750-9_9

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-77752-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-77750-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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