Barriers to ITS Adoption: A systematic mapping study

Abstract

Despite leading to strong learning outcomes, intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) have struggled to reach widescale adoption. However, recent increases in educational technology adoption are slowly leading to larger user bases. Such order-of-magnitude increases have significant research implications for the number and diversity of users. To better understand the problems and solutions that impact this transition, a review of barriers to ITS adoption was performed. This paper significantly extends a prior systematic mapping study of recent ITS literature (2009-2012) focusing on barriers in the developing world. The present study examines research published on possible barriers to adoption related to students, teachers, and school systems. The results indicate that while barriers related to students have received extensive attention, less attention has been given to barriers related to teachers and schools. Successful and innovative approaches to integrating ITS with teacher and school needs are reviewed, with consideration given to both published research papers and successful commercial systems. © 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland.