Processing Language Input in the CIRCSIM-Tutor Intelligent Tutoring System

Abstract

. Language-based Socratic tutoring systems face the problem of handling unconstrained student input. By asking closed, short-answer questions, the CIRCSIMTutor dialogue-based intelligent tutoring system has rendered the free-text input understanding task more tractable. Even though the tutor's questions can be answered very simply, CIRCSIM-Tutor has preserved quite a number of the pedagogical advantages and opportunities of unconstrained student input. By using only simple language processing facilities the tutor is able to respond appropriately to a high percentage of student turns. 1