U‐TA: A ubiquitous teaching assistant using knowledge retrieval and adaptive learning techniques. Issue 2 (21st July 2010)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Huang, Lu‐Hui; Dow, Chyi‐Ren; Li, Yi‐Hsung; Hsuan, Pa
• Is Part Of: Computer applications in engineering education. Volume 21:Issue 2(2013:Jun.)
• Page Start: 245
• Page End: 255
• Publication Date: 2010-07-21
• Subjects: Engineering -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- Periodicals; Engineering -- Computer-assisted instruction -- Periodicals; 620
• DOI: 10.1002/cae.20466
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1061-3773

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" xml:lang="en"> <title>Abstract</title> <p>Using mobile agents to assist students in virtual learning environments has become increasingly common for hands‐on experiments. Although virtual learning environments provide mobile agents as a platform for services to learners, one type of mobile agent only serves in one course, bringing possible benefits to users. This study was conducted to use agent techniques to construct a ubiquitous teaching assistant (u‐TA) for assisting students solve problems in laboratory courses. We gave the u‐TA enhanced social skills so that it can reduce the burden on teachers. The proposed u‐TA system consists of both Web‐based and instant messenger‐based (IM‐based) interfaces, and the u‐TA can learn from other agents by analyzing their dialogues. Experiments were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the u‐TA and the results show that the u‐TA can assist students and share the TA's workload in courses. The experimental results also demonstrated that the u‐TA has good communications ability; its two user interfaces can increase interactions with students. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 21: 245–255, 2013</p> </abstract>