For undergraduate students

Project title: Developing Web-based User Interface for CS Tutor
Drs. Jungsoon Yoo & Sung Yoo

An intelligent tutoring system (ITS) can help students learn specific concepts with a personalized attention.  We have developed AtoL (Adaptive tutor for online Learning) that provides on-line tutoring for introductory CS courses.  Currently, we are working on a project of developing an ITS that teaches problem solving skills using the step-wise abstraction refinement technique. One research topic is to develop a Web-based user interface for the ITS.  A well-designed user interface can improve the performance as well as user satisfaction. 

For undergraduate and graduate students

Project title: Developing an Intelligent Algorithm Development Tutor
Drs. Jungsoon Yoo, Sung Yoo, Chrisila Pettey, and Suk Seo

An intelligent tutoring system (ITS) can help students learn specific concepts with a personalized attention.  When coupled with a well-developed student modeling scheme, an ITS can provide effective tutoring that is tailored to the needs of the individual student.  This adaptive guidance during problem solving can encourage cognitive processes that stimulate learning and discourage counter-productive cognitive processes.  The goal of this project is to develop a pedagogical tool that trains introductory computer-programming students in using the top-down approach with abstraction refinement. The tool also supports the use of the bottom-up approach of using pre-existing solutions to promote software reusability.

For graduate students

Project title: Developing a Teachable Agent for CS-I
Drs. Jungsoon Yoo and Gautam Biswas in Vanderbilt University

Teachable Agent environments in mathematics and science are motivating students and lead to high degrees of student learning. The hallmark of these environments is that students learn by instructing "teachable agents" who then venture forth in simulation-based exploratory environments and attempt to solve problems that require knowledge relevant to the disciplines of mathematics or science. If the agents have been taught properly they solve the problems; otherwise they need to be taught further. Students "scout" the problem solving requirements of various environments before attempting to teach their agents. Additional help and coaching agents are available to point students in the right direction when they make errors or produce sub-optimal solutions. The goal of this project is to develop a teachable agent environment for problem solving in CS-I.