The architecture of why2-atlas: A coach for qualitative physics essay writing

Kurt VanLehn, Pamela W. Jordan, Carolyn P. Rosé, Dumisizwe Bhembe, Michael Böttner, Andy Gaydos, Maxim Makatchev, Umarani Pappuswamy, Michael Ringenberg, Antonio Roque, Stephanie Siler, Ramesh Srivastava

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

128 Scopus citations

Abstract

The Why2-Atlas system teaches qualitative physics by having students write paragraph-long explanations of simple mechanical phenomena. The tutor uses deep syntactic analysis and abductive theorem proving to convert the student’s essay to a proof. The proof formalizes not only what was said, but the likely beliefs behind what was said. This allows the tutor to uncover misconceptions as well as to detect missing correct parts of the explanation. If the tutor finds such a flaw in the essay, it conducts a dialogue intended to remedy the missing or misconceived beliefs, then asks the student to correct the essay. It often takes several iterations of essay correction and dialogue to get the student to produce an acceptable explanation. Pilot subjects have been run, and an evaluation is in progress. After explaining the research questions that the system addresses, the bulk of the paper describes the system’s architecture and operation.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
PublisherSpringer Verlag
Pages158-167
Number of pages10
Volume2363
ISBN (Print)9783540437505
StatePublished - 2002
Externally publishedYes
Event6th International Conference on Intelligent Tutoring Systems, ITS 2002 - Biarritz, France
Duration: Jun 2 2002Jun 7 2002

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume2363
ISSN (Print)03029743
ISSN (Electronic)16113349

Other

Other6th International Conference on Intelligent Tutoring Systems, ITS 2002
Country/TerritoryFrance
CityBiarritz
Period6/2/026/7/02

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Computer Science(all)
  • Theoretical Computer Science

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