Intelligent tutoring systems as design

To build intelligent tutoring systems (ITSs) is not easy. Over the years, various attempts had been made with many problems uncovered. This paper presents the situation and proposes the notion of ITS as design to engage ITS development with more rigor. With the various related issues, principles and characteristics of design described, the ITS design problem space is elaborated Implications from adopting such a perspective, including (a) a systems approach to ITS, (b) a paradigm hierarchy, (c) the emergence of an agent model, and (d) the need for a description language, are highlighted. We further argue that by such a rendering, more systematic collection of efforts on ITS can be achieved. It is envisaged that the discussions would help set the research of ITS in context and provide further intuition towards ITS development. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd All rights reserved.