Title: An Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) view on AOSE

Authors: Rosa Maria Vicari, Joao Carlos Gluz

Addresses: Instituto de Informatica, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Av. Bento Goncalves, 9500 – Campus do Vale – Bloco IV, 95501–970 Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil ' Pos-Graduacao em Computacao Aplicada (PIPCA), Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos (UNISINOS), Av. Unisinos, 950, 93022–000 Sao Leopoldo, RS, Brazil

Abstract: The creation of Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) applications involves tasks that require the modelling of complex agents (i.e., human students); therefore, a cognitive agency approach is more appropriate than a weak agency approach. ITS applications need to know, plan and understand several aspects of the other intelligent entities that inhabit the same environment. This is the viewpoint not considered in Agent-Oriented Software Engineering (AOSE) methodologies that this work intends to cover. This aspect is the main innovation of this work, and also presents a critical requirement that should be fulfilled by applications before someone tries to use the AOSE methods proposed here. In this context, the paper presents a set of AOSE methods derived from ITS research, which defines applicability criteria, designs principles and implementation guidelines to be applied in the software analysis, design and development process. The application of such methods is exemplified by several ITSs developed in our research group.

Keywords: agent-oriented Software engineering; AOSE; belief-desire-intention models; BDI models; multi-agent systems; MAS; intelligent tutoring systems; ITS.

DOI: 10.1504/IJAOSE.2007.016264

International Journal of Agent-Oriented Software Engineering, 2007 Vol.1 No.3/4, pp.295 - 333

Published online: 13 Dec 2007 *

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