Evaluating the Effectiveness of Adaptive Tutorial Dialogues in EER-Tutor

Abstract

Researchers have long been interested in tutorial dialogues as they are considered to be one of the critical factors contributing to the effectiveness of human one-on-one tutoring. We discuss an evaluation study that investigates the effectiveness of adaptive tutorial dialogues in database design. EER-Tutor, a database design tutor was enhanced to
facilitate adaptive tutorial dialogues. The control group participants received non-adaptive dialogues regardless of their knowledge level and explanation skills. The experimental group participants received adaptive dialogues that were customised based on their student models. The performance on pre- and post-tests indicated that the experimental group participants learned significantly more than their peers. The subjective responses indicated no difference in their impression towards the quality of the dialogues and the understandability of the questions. However there was clear evidence that the control group did not like having to go through the entire dialogue before resuming problem-solving.