An affective and cognitive tutoring system for learning programming

Abstract

In this paper, we present a multiplatform and Intelligent Tutoring System for learning Java (Java Sensei). The learning system combines state-of-the-art action selection, motivation through emotions, a modern recommendation mechanism, and multimodal instructional and selection learning. Java Sensei architecture works with a collection of modules and processes, each with its own effective representations and algorithms. The learning system was implemented under different learning methodologies like problem-solving for the pedagogical module, knowledge space for the expert module, and overlays for the student module. One of the main contributions of this work was the integration of cognitive and affective information in a behavioral graph which is used by a learning companion to show emotions and empathy to the student. Java Sensei was tested with different groups of university students with which we obtained positive results. In addition to providing a detailed description of the implementation and evaluation of Java Sensei, we also provide some proposals of future work in our intelligent tutoring systems.