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The elderly are often unfamiliar with computer technology and can encounter great difficulties. Moreover, the terms used in such systems may prove to be a challenge for these users. The aim of this research is to tutor the elderly on using an adaptive e‐shop system in order to buy products easily.

In view of the above, the paper creates an intelligent tutoring component for the elderly. It incorporated this component into an e‐shop application for interactive TV in order to evaluate it. The component created is both medium‐ and domain‐independent.

The independent tutoring component that provided combined product recommendations and adaptive help actions had a positive influence on the elderly and created a friendlier shopping environment for them.

The research proposes a novel component for the elderly that uniquely combines product recommendations and adaptive help reactions. This component can be used in a large variety of recommendation applications as it is medium‐ and domain‐independent.

Selected current and recent work in the area of cognitive modelling is reviewed. Particular attention is paid to user models (that is, the model held by a system of a user). The relevance of this work to information retrieval is assessed and some attempts to include user models in IR systems are discussed. Implications are drawn for future work in IR.

The success of intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) has always been questioned. Recent developments however in the object‐oriented technologies and artificial intelligence techniques have allowed development of better human‐computer interaction for effective teaching and learning. This paper presents the implementation of an ITS that employs game environment and object‐oriented user interface (OOUI) for teaching and learning. The reported implementation is based on use of a game environment to impart industrial training for energy conservation in a steam distribution system. The ITS developed allows players to assume a particular role in a process industry and learn efficient operation of steam distribution system for conserving energy in the plant. The design of game environment and supporting OOUI are discussed. Those aspects of design and implementation that are of equal interest to game designers, instructional designers and educationists are described in detail. The paper may assist game developers and instructional designers in developing ITS for other disciplines.

This paper aims to describe the deployment of an e‐learning environment for construction courses based on enhancing virtual computing technologies using agent‐based techniques.

This research involves designing and deploying a complex application that combines advanced visualisation, interactive management through complex virtual devices, distributed multi‐user communication and intelligent components. The proposed agent‐oriented methodology and resulting application organises construction knowledge into a structure that enables the students to undertake more self‐directed, systematic and scientific exploration.

There is great potential for experimenting with a wider variety of educational technologies such as “intelligent” virtual environments. This is a concept that needs further experimentation within construction courses to enrich students' learning with practice‐based experiences. The use of ageny‐oriented objects within simulations and modeling make the virtual learning environment a highly interactive experience. Attempts to do this using traditional intelligent tutoring systems have been frustrated by integrations challenges. Agent‐based systems can handle such challenges. The agent approach is also more efficient in analysing the impact of different decisions in various scenarios by automating the execution of repetitive, time‐consuming actions.

This research identifies specific gaps in the existing e‐learning infrastructure that can be addressed using the intelligent agent paradigm. In particular, the research demonstrates how the notion of learning by actively exploring and controlling environmental variables can be best utilised in the selected domain by giving the learners the means to rapidly visualize the effects of their decisions.

Construction disciplines have increasingly embraced the use of advanced visualisation applications and display systems that allow students to gain a better understanding of the construction process and the resulting facility's performance. Existing efforts are based on image visualisation or animation detailed using, for example, Virtual Reality Modeling Language and 3D Studio Max‐based design animations and walkthroughs. None of these efforts has explored the use of an agent oriented, virtual tutoring approach. A comprehensive literature review established that of no formalised methodologies exist for deploying agent‐based virtual learning environments.

Describes Byzantium, an intelligent tutoring system for teaching the concepts and skills of accounting. The generic design philosophy of Byzantium and its associated intelligent tutoring tools are described, together with commentary that places Byzantium in the tradition of the adaptive teaching machines and conversational tutorial systems (SAKI and CASTE) developed by Gordon Pask.

Intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) are a supplemental educational tool that offers great benefits to students and teachers. The systems are designed to focus on an individual’s characteristics, needs and preferences in an effort to improve student outcomes. Despite the potential benefits of such systems, little work has been done to investigate the impact of ITS on users. To provide a more nuanced understanding of the effectiveness of ITS, the purpose of this paper is to explore the role of several ITS parameters (i.e. knowledge, system, service quality and task–technology fit (TTF)) in motivating, satisfying and helping students to improve their learning performance.

Data were obtained from students who used ITS, and a structural equation modeling was deployed to analyze the data.

Data analysis revealed that the quality of knowledge, system and service directly impacted satisfaction and improved TTF for ITS. It was found that TTF and student satisfaction with ITS did not generate higher learning performance. However, student satisfaction with ITS did improve learning motivation and resulted in superior learning performance. Data suggest this is due to students receiving constant and constructive feedback while simultaneously collaborating with their peers and teachers.

This study verifies that there was a need to assess the benefits of ITS. Based on the study’s findings, theoretical and practical implications are proposed.

This paper explores a different approach to evaluating the merits of specific technical components of computer based learning applications. A traditional double blind experimental study was implemented in a new context. A computer based Clinical Decision Simulator (CDS) system was designed and implemented incorporating an intelligent agent. This was compared to an otherwise identical system with no agent, and a group of students not using CBL systems. The results suggested that although no improvement in measurable learning outcomes could be conclusively demonstrated there was some evidence that those students using the intelligent agent system demonstrated more positive learning experiences and a deeper conceptualisation of the issues. This would suggest that a comparative multimethod experimental evaluation strategy, although complex (and not without its shortcomings) may help provide a more comprehensive analysis of students learning experience, and provide a useful picture of the student’s perceptions of CBL tools. This novel approach may be of particular relevance where the justification of a specific technological aspect of an e‐learning application is required. The value of developing and using an experimental strategy to evaluate a specific technological aspect of a computer based learning (CBL) application is discussed.

Examine the effectiveness of online tutoring software to ameliorate poor performance in intermediate financial accounting.

Probit regression analysis comparing users versus nonusers of online accounting tutoring software, as well as analysis of student achievement pre and post-technology adoption over a 10-year period.

We confirm prior research findings that the number of terms that have transpired since a student took introductory financial accounting, whether they took the course at a two-year college, or if they needed to repeat the introductory course, are all negatively associated with performance in intermediate accounting. We find evidence that an online tutoring system, ALEKS®, helps moderate these negative correlations. Results suggest that in upper division courses where student knowledge of underlying basic material is uneven, online tutors are an effective tool in bringing students up to an equal level of competence without sacrificing class time.

Provides empirical evidence on the usefulness of online accounting software as a review tool in intermediate accounting.

Disadvantages experienced by accounting students due to when, where, and how they learned introductory accounting can be overcome quickly.

Although vendors of intelligent online tutoring software market their product as a useful review tool for intermediate accounting, academic research has not examined the effectiveness of these products.

The purpose of this study is to develop an intelligent tutoring system (ITS) for programming learning based on information tutoring feedback (ITF) to provide real-time guidance and feedback to self-directed learners during programming problem-solving and to improve learners’ computational thinking.

By analyzing the mechanism of action of ITF on the development of computational thinking, an ITF strategy and corresponding ITS acting on the whole process of programming problem-solving were developed to realize the evaluation of programming problem-solving ideas based on program logic. On the one hand, a lexical and syntactic analysis of the programming problem solutions input by the learners is performed and presented with a tree-like structure. On the other hand, by comparing multiple algorithms, it is implemented to compare the programming problem solutions entered by the learners with the answers and analyze the gaps to give them back to the learners to promote the improvement of their computational thinking.

This study clarifies the mechanism of the role of ITF-based ITS in the computational thinking development process. Results indicated that the ITS designed in this study is effective in promoting students’ computational thinking, especially for low-level learners. It also helped to improve students’ learning motivation, and reducing cognitive load, while there’s no significant difference among learners of different levels.

This study developed an ITS based on ITF to address the problem of learners’ difficulty in obtaining real-time guidance in the current programming problem-solving-based computational thinking development, providing a good aid for college students’ independent programming learning.

In this paper a conception of the model for learning scenario determination is presented. We define the learning scenario as a sequence of the hypermedia pages, representing particular knowledge units, and tests related to them. The scenario determination is a dynamic process that begins when a new student takes up a course. The opening scenario for this student is chosen as the consensus of the final scenarios of the students, who have already finished this course, and who belong to a class of the learners similar to the new one. We have elaborated the consensus‐based procedure for the scenario determination. Since this procedure operates on a set of similar learners, we have developed the conceptions of learner’s profile and students’ classification. The learner’s profile is proposed to include the attributes describing students’ personal data (as name, birthday etc.), their cognitive and learning styles as well as their usage data (represented by the learning scenarios). The students’ classification is based on a set of the basic attributes that seem to influence the learning effects. Their significance is verified during the learning process. We have also elaborated the procedure of reducing undistinguishable values of the attribute and removing useless attributes from the set of basic attributes. A learning procedure proposed, describes generally the situations when the scenario is modified, and the methods used for its modification.