title: AutoTutor: a tutor with dialogue in natural language.
abstract: AutoTutor is a learning environment that tutors students by holding a conversation in natural language. AutoTutor has been developed for Newtonian qualitative physics and computer literacy. Its design was inspired by explanation-based constructivist theories of learning, intelligent tutoring systems that adaptively respond to student knowledge, and empirical research on dialogue patterns in tutorial discourse. AutoTutor presents challenging problems (formulated as questions) from a curriculum script and then engages in mixed initiative dialogue that guides the student in building an answer. It provides the student with positive, neutral, or negative feedback on the student's typed responses, pumps the student for more information, prompts the student to fill in missing words, gives hints, fills in missing information with assertions, identifies and corrects erroneous ideas, answers the student's questions, and summarizes answers. AutoTutor has produced learning gains of approximately .70 sigma for deep levels of comprehension.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Memphis, Tennessee 38152-3230, USA. a-graesser@memphis.edu
authors.forename: Arthur C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Graesser
authors.forename: Shulan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: George Tanner
authors.initials: GT
authors.lastname: Jackson
authors.forename: Heather Hite
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Mitchell
authors.forename: Mathew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ventura
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Olney
authors.forename: Max M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Louwerse
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001185:Artificial Intelligence; D003194:Computer-Assisted Instruction; D006801:Humans; D009323:Natural Language Processing; D018794:Problem-Based Learning / Q000379:methods*; D015397:Program Evaluation; D013334:Students; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods*; D014584:User-Computer Interface