From elementary knowledge schemes towards heuristic expertise — designing an ITS in the field of parallel programming

Abstract

An important feature in the field of parallel programming is the use of synchronization. We describe an intelligent tutoring system, SYPROS, which provides a comfortable tool through which students gain practice in synchronizing parallel processes with semaphores. Its domain expert includes two different problem solving components. This reflects the fact that human experts generally need two phases in solving synchronization problems: A first solution is developed by combining elementary schemes according to heuristic rules. If the underlying problem is difficult usually this solution needs successive improvements in a second phase. These two phases of problem solving play an important part in student modelling: It requires a special diagnosis component for continuously analysing the student’s solving process.