SBIR Phase II: Developing a Cost-Effective Method for Creating Cognitive Models for Cognitive Tutors

这一小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第二阶段项目将使创建有效的智能教学系统(ITSS)变得更容易，它将使这项技术能够传播给比目前意识到的更广泛的受众。事实证明，信息技术系统在提供以计算机为基础的教学方面非常有效，但它们历来昂贵且难以建造，需要人工智能和生产系统编程方面的专门技能。在Clearsight第一阶段成就的基础上，该公司将：(1)完成功能齐全的软件开发工具包(SDK)，使非认知科学家能够创建支持智能交通系统的认知模型；(2)开发使智能交通系统能够与绝大多数第三方软件进行通信的技术；(3)开发使智能交通系统能够与机构现有在线学习系统协同工作的技术；以及(4)从构建智能交通系统所节省的时间和客户的投资回报两方面评估研究团队的工作。预计有两个主要结果：(1)编写ITS所需的时间减少两到三倍；(2)客户每小时估计可节省传统培训时间成本的30%。ITSS的成功是有据可查的(例如，Koedinger，Anderson，Hadley，&amp；Mark，1997；Corbett，2001；Morgan&amp；Ritter，2002)。然而，由于所需的高水平专业知识和创建成本，信息技术支持系统尚未得到广泛部署。此外，缺乏可行的选择来将智能交通系统的认知模型与现有的软件对接，损害了该技术的更广泛传播。通过增加对如何减少创建ITS所需的专门知识以及如何实现ITSS与现有软件的接口的技术了解，这项得到支持的工作的结果将是更广泛地分发ITS。通过利用这项技术，Clearsight将成为在线技术培训领域的市场领先者。Clearsight已与其在K-12教育领域的领导者卡内基学习公司合作，以协助实现这些目标，并且它拥有执行所需工作所需的额外专业知识。通过将其技术从目前非常小的市场转移到不仅包括教育，而且包括企业和工业应用的更广泛的受众，许多进行在线培训的公司和机构的成本将大大降低，他们的员工的生产率将提高。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will make the creation of effective intelligent tutoring systems (ITSs) easier, and it will enable the dissemination of that technology to a broader audience than currently realized. ITSs have proven to be highly effective in delivering computer-based instruction, but they have historically been expensive and difficult to build, requiring specialized skill in artificial intelligence and production systems programming. Building upon Clearsighted's Phase I accomplishments, the firm will: (1) finish a fully-functional software development kit (SDK) that will allow non-cognitive scientists to create the cognitive model that powers an ITS; (2) develop technology that will enable an ITS to communicate to the vast majority of third-party software; (3) develop techniques that will allow an ITS to work with an institution's existing on-line learning system; and (4) evaluate the research team's work with respect to both time-savings in building ITSs and customers' return on investment. Two main results are anticipated: (1) a two- to three-fold decrease in the amount of time it takes to author an ITS; and (2) an estimated savings to customers of 30% per hour of the cost of traditional training time.The success of ITSs is well documented (e.g., Koedinger, Anderson, Hadley, & Mark, 1997; Corbett, 2001; Morgan & Ritter, 2002). However, ITSs have not been broadly deployed, due to the high level of expertise needed and the cost to create. Furthermore, lack of viable options to interface the cognitive model of an ITS with already existing software impairs wider dissemination of that technology. By increasing technological understanding of how to reduce the amount of the expertise needed to create an ITS and how to accomplish interfacing ITSs with existing software, the result of this supported work will be a wider distribution of ITSs. Clearsighted is well poised to become a market leader in on-line technical training by leveraging this technology. Clearsighted has partnered with Carnegie Learning, the ITS leader in K-12 education to assist in these goals, and it has the additional expertise needed to perform the required work. By transitioning ITS technology from its currently very small market to a wider audience that includes not only education, but also corporate and industrial applications, the costs to the many companies and institutions that do on-line training will greatly decrease, and the productivity of their workers will increase.