Razzaq, L., Parvarczki, J., Almeida, S.F., Vartak, M., Feng, M., Heffernan, N.T. and Koedinger, K. (2008). The ASSISTment builder: Supporting the Life-cycle of ITS Content Creation. IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies Special Issue on Real-World Applications of Intelligent Tutoring Systems. 2(2) 157-166.
Abstract
Content creation is a large component of the cost of creating educational software. For intelligent tutoring systems, estimates are that approximately 200 hours are required for every hour of instruction. We present an authoring tool designed to reduce this cost. The ASSISTment Builder is a tool that is designed to effectively create, edit, test, and deploy pseudo-tutor content. The web-based interface simplifies the process of tutor construction to allow users with little or no programming experience to develop content. Previously, we have shown the effectiveness of our Builder at reducing costs to 30 hours for every hour of instruction. In this paper, we replicate this experiment and report our new results for the cost. We also describe new features that work towards supporting the life cycle of ITS content creation through maintaining and improving content as it is being used by students.