Communication Patterns in Component-Based Intelligent Tutoring Systems

Design patterns are reusable solutions to recurrent problems. Generally described in the context of object-oriented programming, only a few contributions can be found in the domain of eLearning in general or Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs) in particular. Based on several approaches to describe the systems´ underlying architecture into pattern collections, we have developed a component-based framework. This framework provides a foundation for the development of flexible and reusable ITS. It also provides a basis for development of other eLearning systems. Still, the complexity of the inter-modular communication requires experience and self-discipline from the programmer. Thus we investigated the framework for additional patterns. We extracted useful communication patterns and integrated them into an editor. Patterns and editor are presented in this paper as they already proved themselves very useful in regard to programming efficiency and consistency.