Case-based tutoring in virtual education environments

• Authors: Patrick M. Regan;Brian M. Slator
• Venue: Proceedings of the 4th international conference on Collaborative virtual environments
• Year: 2002

Virtual education environments are gaining popularity as tools to enhance student learning. These environments are often used to allow students to experience situations that would be difficult, costly, or impossible in the physical world. North Dakota State University (NDSU) provides students with environments to enhance their understanding of geology (Planet Oit), cellular biology (Virtual Cell), retailing (DollarBay), and history (Blackwood). In order to maximize the learning potential of each individual student, an ideal environment needs to provide customized lessons to that student based on his or her individual performance. One method to address this requirement is the use of case-based reasoning which is used to monitor student performance, track progress throughout an environment, compare the student to other students in the same environment, and create customized tutor dialogs to communicate this information to the student in the form of individual tutor lessons. An example of case-based lesson building software that meets the above requirements can be observed in the current DollarBay retailing environment at NDSU.