A student modeling system for ITCDD: an intelligent tutor for CMOS digital design

Modeling the state of knowledge a student has during a problem solving process is one of the most difficult tasks in intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) research. The paper describes the implementation of an ITS that teaches CMOS digital circuit design. The overall goal is to teach circuit design at the undergraduate level, while the specific aim is to design a student modeling module (SMM) that evaluates a student´s response to a circuit design problem. The SMM classifies concepts used (or not used) by a student in four categories: known concept, misconception, missing concept, and forgotten concept. Based on this generic categorization of student´s knowledge of design and domain concepts, the tutoring module selects appropriate problems and level of explanations in a manner that facilitates highly individualized instruction