Intelligent Tutoring Systems for Ill-Defined Domains - Philippe ...

Two Approaches for Providing Adaptive Support 4
We also included two dimensions relating directly to intercultural competence. These
dimensions represent a necessary simplification of the domain for prototype systems:
3. MP: Does the post show awareness of multiple points of view or an alternate
point of view?
Although the above post does not elaborate on multiple points of view, it does
acknowledge that they exist
4. NF: Does the post introduce relevant new facts not directly from the video?
The above post talks about the poster’s experiences in France.
Finally, we included a dimension to check whether the discussion includes correct
and relevant cultural knowledge from the video:
5. CF: Does the post reference at least one correct cultural element specific to
the themes of the video, and no incorrect cultural elements?
The above post does not include any facts seen in the video clip.
In order to produce concise and meaningful feedback to students, we organized
these five dimensions in a theoretical hierarchy of importance (see Figure 1). The
large diamonds in the diagram represent the primary decision points for assessing
posts, and are organized from most to least important, left to right. The "on topic"
dimension is at the highest level of priority, because if the content of the post was not
relevant to the cultural issue, it makes no sense to examine whether, for example, the
post contains a good argument. Novel facts are the lowest-priority dimension, because
they add to a post but are not necessary for a good post. The small diamonds in
the diagram are secondary decision points that augment the assessment; e.g., once we
ascertain that the post does not contain multiple perspectives, we then check whether
it has correct facts. Feedback (represented by squares) focuses mainly on the primary
lacking dimension, but incorporates a second lacking dimension as needed.
Figure 1: Model used to assess a discussion post and provide feedback