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

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目将使有效的智能辅导系统（ITS）的创建更容易，它将使该技术传播到更广泛的受众比目前实现的。 ITS已被证明在提供基于计算机的教学方面非常有效，但它们历来昂贵且难以构建，需要人工智能和生产系统编程的专业技能。 基于Clearsighted第一阶段的成就，该公司将： (1)完成一个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ITS的认知模型;（2）开发技术，使ITS能够与绝大多数第三方软件进行通信;（3）开发技术，使ITS能够与机构现有的在线学习系统一起工作;及（4）评估研究小组在建立资讯科技系统方面所节省的时间及客户的投资回报。 预计将产生两个主要结果：（1）编写ITS所需的时间减少两到三倍;（2）估计每小时为客户节省30%的传统培训时间成本。Koedinger，安德森，Hadley，Mark，1997年; Corbett，2001年; Morgan Ritter，2002年）。然而，由于所需的高水平专门知识和创建成本，信息技术系统尚未得到广泛部署。 此外，缺乏将智能交通系统的认知模式与现有软件相结合的可行办法，妨碍了该技术的更广泛传播。 通过提高对如何减少创建综合信息系统所需的专门知识以及如何实现综合信息系统与现有软件的接口的技术理解，这一支助工作的结果将是更广泛地推广综合信息系统。 通过利用这项技术，Clearsighted已经准备好成为在线技术培训的市场领导者。 Clearsighted与K-12教育领域的ITS领导者Carnegie Learning合作，以协助实现这些目标，它拥有执行所需工作所需的额外专业知识。 通过将ITS技术从目前非常小的市场转移到更广泛的受众，不仅包括教育，还包括企业和工业应用，许多进行在线培训的公司和机构的成本将大大降低，其工人的生产力将提高。

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.