| Summary: | Most authoring tools for intelligent tutoring systems are targeted towards a broad range of applications. Such systems have expressive power but gain the complexity inherent in any general programming language. This paper considers a different kind of authoring tool, focused on creating content for a specific intelligent tutoring system. The resulting system, called pSAT, addresses the great demand for continuing development of content. A system like pSAT needs to be easily learned by end-users and needs to provide feedback adequate for the user to be able to determine that the system will correctly present the content under a wide range of user strategies, preferences and abilities. We focus on design principles driven by these considerations and conclude with a development strategy that begins with a closely-focused content authoring system and then broadens to a system that can more fundamentally affect the type of content presented by the intelligent tutoring system.
Reviewers: Chris DiGiano (SRI), Greg Kearsley (Nova Southeastern U.), Henry Lieberman (MIT) Interactive elements: 'The Problem Situation Authoring Tool (pSAT) described in this article is available online.' Demonstration: The Problem Situation Authoring Tool (pSAT) described in this article is available at
<A HREF="http://domino.psy.cmu.edu:81/best/psat.html">http://domino.psy.cmu.edu:81/best/psat.html</A>.
An online version of the Practical Algebra Tutor, PAT OnLine, is available at
<A HREF="http://domino.psy.cmu.edu/patonline.html">http://domino.psy.cmu.edu/patonline.html</A>.
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