Moslem Yousefi

A flowchart-based intelligent tutoring system for improving problem-solving skills of novice programmers

Intelligent tutoring and personalization are considered as the two most important factors in the research of learning systems and environments. An effective tool that can be used to improve problem-solving ability is an Intelligent Tutoring System which is capable of mimicking a human tutors actions in implementing a one-to-one personalized and adaptive teaching. In this paper, a novel Flowchart-based Intelligent Tutoring System FITS is proposed benefiting from Bayesian networks for the process of decision making so as to aid students in problem-solving activities and learning computer programming. FITS not only takes full advantage of Bayesian networks, but also benefits from a multi-agent system using an automatic text-to-flowchart conversion approach for engaging novice programmers in flowchart development with the aim of improving their problem-solving skills. In the end, in order to investigate the efficacy of FITS in problem-solving ability acquisition, a quasi-experimental design was adopted by this research. According to the results, students in the FITS group experienced better improvement in their problem-solving abilities than those in the control group. Moreover, with regard to the improvement of a users problem-solving ability, FITS has shown to be considerably effective for students with different levels of prior knowledge, especially for those with a lower level of prior knowledge.

Data-Driven Approaches to Game Player Modeling: A Systematic Literature Review

Modeling and predicting player behavior is of the utmost importance in developing games. Experience has proven that, while theory-driven approaches are able to comprehend and justify a models choices, such models frequently fail to encompass necessary features because of a lack of insight of the model builders. In contrast, data-driven approaches rely much less on expertise, and thus offer certain potential advantages. Hence, this study conducts a systematic review of the extant research on data-driven approaches to game player modeling. To this end, we have assessed experimental studies of such approaches over a nine-year period, from 2008 to 2016; this survey yielded 46 research studies of significance. We found that these studies pertained to three main areas of focus concerning the uses of data-driven approaches in game player modeling. One research area involved the objectives of data-driven approaches in game player modeling: behavior modeling and goal recognition. Another concerned methods: classification, clustering, regression, and evolutionary algorithm. The third was comprised of the current challenges and promising research directions for data-driven approaches in game player modeling.

SITS: a solution-based intelligent tutoring system for students’ acquisition of problem-solving skills in computer programming

Abstract In learning systems and environment research, intelligent tutoring and personalisation are considered the two most important factors. An Intelligent Tutoring System can serve as an effective tool to improve problem-solving skills by simulating a human tutor’s actions in implementing one-to-one adaptive and personalised teaching. Thus, in this research, a solution-based intelligent tutoring system (SITS) is proposed. It benefits from Bayesian networks in managing uncertainty based on the probability theory for the process of decision-making so as to aid students learn computer programming. Additionally, SITS benefits from a multi-agent system that employs an automatic text-to-flowchart conversion approach to engage novice programmers in flowchart development with the aim of improving their problem-solving skills. Finally, the performance of SITS is investigated through an experimental study. It is revealed that SITS is not only capable of boosting students’ learning interest, attitude and technology acceptance, but it also helps students achieve more in terms of problem-solving activities.

A swarm intelligent approach for multi-objective optimization of compact heat exchangers

Design optimization of heat exchangers is a very complicated task that has been traditionally carried out based on a trial-and-error procedure. To overcome the difficulties of the conventional design approaches especially when a large number of variables, constraints and objectives are involved, a new method based on a well-established evolutionary algorithm, particle swarm optimization, weighted sum approach and a novel constraint handling strategy is presented in this study. Since the conventional constraint handling strategies are not effective and easy-to-implement in multi-objective algorithms, a novel feasibility-based ranking strategy is introduced which is both extremely user-friendly and effective. A case study from industry has been investigated to illustrate the performance of the presented approach. The results show that the proposed algorithm can find the near pareto-optimal with higher accuracy when it is compared to conventional non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II. Moreover, the difficulties of a trial-and-error process for setting the penalty parameters are solved in this algorithm.

A systematic review of data-driven approaches in player modeling of educational games

Recent years have seen growing interest in open-ended interactive educational tools such as games. One of the most crucial aspects of developing games lies in modeling and predicting individual behavior, the study of computational models of players in games. Although model-based approaches have been considered standard for this purpose, their application is often extremely difficult due to the huge space of actions that can be created by educational games. For this reason, data-driven approaches have shown promise, in part because they are not completely reliant on expert knowledge. This study seeks to systematically review the existing research on the use of data-driven approaches in player modeling of educational games. The primary objectives of this study are to identify, classify, and bring together the relevant approaches. We have carefully surveyed a 10-year sample (2008–2017) of research studies conducted on data-driven approaches in player modeling of educational games, and thereby found 67 significant research works. However, our criteria for inclusion reduced the sample to 21 studies that addressed four primary research questions, and so we analyzed and classified the questions, methods, and findings of these published works, which we evaluated and from which we drew conclusions based on non-statistical methods. We found that there are three primary avenues along which data-driven approaches have been studied in educational games research: first, the objective of data-driven approaches in player modeling of educational games, namely behavior modeling, goal recognition, and procedural content generation; second, approaches employed in such modeling; finally, current challenges of using data-driven approaches in player modeling of educational games, namely game data, temporal forecasting in player models, statistical techniques, algorithmic efficiency, knowledge engineering, problem of generalizability, and data sparsity problem. In conclusion we addressed four critical future challenges in the area, namely, the lack of proper and rich data publicly available to the researchers, the lack of a data-driven method to identify conceptual features from log data, hybrid player modeling approaches, and data mining techniques for individual prediction.

Flowchart-based Bayesian Intelligent Tutoring System for computer programming

There is a misconception of what programming is at the early stages of learning programming for Computer Science (CS) minors. More researches in this field have revealed that the lack of problem-solving skills, which is considered as one of the prominent shortcomings that novices deal with, is exacerbated by language syntax that the novices employ. A Flowchart-based Intelligent Tutoring System (FITS) is proposed in this research aimed at introducing the early stages of learning programming (CS1) to put the record straight. The students who have no prior knowledge of programming are the target audience of this research. In order to support novice programmers in beginning of programming, Bayesian network approach is applied mainly for decision making and to handle uncertainties in knowledge level of students. How to use Bayesian network to take full advantage of it as an inference engine for providing users with various guidance is described in this paper. Therefore, our proposed system provides users with dynamic guidance such as recommend learning goals, recommend options for flowchart development, and generate appropriate reading sequences. Additionally, our proposed systems architecture and its components are elaborated. Our future work is to evaluate the FITS by conducting an experimental study using novices.

A Procedural Content Generation-Based Framework for Educational Games: Toward a Tailored Data-Driven Game for Developing Early English Reading Skills:

Automated content generation for educational games has become an emerging research problem, as manual authoring is often time consuming and costly. In this article, we present a procedural content generation framework that intends to produce educational game content from the viewpoint of both designer and user. This framework generates content by means of genetic algorithm, and thereby offers designers the ability to control the process of content generation for various learning goals according to their preferences. It further takes into consideration how the content can adapt according to the skill of the users. We demonstrate effectiveness of the framework by way of an empirical study of human players in an educational language learning game aiming at developing early English reading skills of young children. The results of our study confirm that users’ performance measurably improves when game contents are customized to their individual ability, in contrast to their improvement in uncustomized games. Moreover, the results show that the lowest proficiency participants demonstrated greater improvements in performance while playing the customized game than did the more highly proficient participants.

Chaotic genetic algorithm and Adaboost ensemble metamodeling approach for optimum resource planning in emergency departments

Long length of stay and overcrowding in emergency departments (EDs) are two common problems in the healthcare industry. To decrease the average length of stay (ALOS) and tackle overcrowding, numerous resources, including the number of doctors, nurses and receptionists need to be adjusted, while a number of constraints are to be considered at the same time. In this study, an efficient method based on agent-based simulation, machine learning and the genetic algorithm (GA) is presented to determine optimum resource allocation in emergency departments. GA can effectively explore the entire domain of all 19 variables and identify the optimum resource allocation through evolution and mimicking the survival of the fittest concept. A chaotic mutation operator is used in this study to boost GA performance. A model of the system needs to be run several thousand times through the GA evolution process to evaluate each solution, hence the process is computationally expensive. To overcome this drawback, a robust metamodel is initially constructed based on an agent-based system simulation. The simulation exhibits ED performance with various resource allocations and trains the metamodel. The metamodel is created with an ensemble of the adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS), feedforward neural network (FFNN) and recurrent neural network (RNN) using the adaptive boosting (AdaBoost) ensemble algorithm. The proposed GA-based optimization approach is tested in a public ED, and it is shown to decrease the ALOS in this ED case study by 14%. Additionally, the proposed metamodel shows a 26.6% improvement compared to the average results of ANFIS, FFNN and RNN in terms of mean absolute percentage error (MAPE).

Development and evaluation of a game-based bayesian intelligent tutoring system for teaching programming

Games with educational purposes usually follow a computer-assisted instruction concept that is predefined and rigid, offering no adaptability to each student. To overcome such problem, some ideas from Intelligent Tutoring Systems have been used in educational games such as teaching introductory programming. The objective of this study was to advance Online Game-based Bayesian Intelligent Tutoring System (OGITS) to enhance programming acquisition and online information searching skills, thus improving students’ ability in web-based problem solving through board games. The study sample comprised 79 college students in introductory level Computer Science classes. Qualitative and quantitative data were then gathered. Results of this study revealed generally favorable opinions about OGITS. As OGITS targets individual knowledge acquisition of computer programming and web-based problem-solving skills, it offers a suitable learning environment for students both as a stand-alone course and as a supplement to traditional classroom settings.

A review on mobile robots motion path planning in unknown environments

Robotics sector have achieved enormous founds in recent years due to its high demands in factories to carry out high-precision jobs like riveting and welding. They are also often applied in special situations that would be hazardous for humans such as disposing toxic wastes or defusing bombs. Mobile robots alone however have gained much focus from researches relating optimization of their motion path planning. In this paper, a brief review on mobile robots motion path planning in unknown environment have been done based on recent founds. The paper categorizes motion path planning into two groups which is the Optimized Classic Approaches and Evolutionary and Hybrid Approaches. The optimized classic approaches represents the recent optimized motion path planning that implies the classic approaches such as A* search algorithm, Rapidly-exploring Random Trees (RRT), D* and D* Lite algorithm. The evolutionary and hybrid approaches are those adapts Artificial Intelligence (AI) such as neural networks (NN), genetic algorithms (GA), fuzzy systems and reinforced learning either acting alone or as hybrids together with other algorithms. Finally a comparison between these two categories are done differentiating their advantages and disadvantages.