Phase I Final Report On An Intelligent Tutoring System For Teaching Battlefield Command Reasoning Skills

Intelligent Tutoring System for Teaching Battlefield Command Reasoning Skills

The research reported here aimed at the design of a Socratic Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) for high-level battlefield command reasoning skills. The ultimate goal of this research is to develop new ITS techniques and technology for teaching skills that cannot he taught as simple methods and procedures to he followed. Achieving expert levels of proficiency in high-level command reasoning skills-whether for battlefield commanders or for executives in industry-requires extensive practice, coaching, and feedback. Learners must he given a chance to drill on detailed and situation-specific knowledge, as well as high-level thinking habits and skills applicable across diverse situations. We studied exemplary command reasoning mentoring by observing tutoring sessions centered on Tactical Decision Games (TDGs). We analyzed those sessions to produce a first draft general model of tutoring actions. We also built a limited proof-of-concept prototype that exhibited many of the key behaviors identified. Taken together, the conduct and products of our Phase I work, along with our proven strong team of collaborators, position us well to carry through on the ambitious work plan outlined here for Phase II.

Technical Report

List of U.S. Army Research Institute Research and Technical Publications