This award is to support a collaborative project by Drs. Mohamed Fayad, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska and Dr. Abdelaziz Khamis, Department of Computer Science, Institute of Statistics, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt. They plan to develop an Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) framework by combining object and framework layering. They will examine how an ITS framework can be layered in order to manage their dependencies and reduce their coupling (Framework Layering). The framework layering allows for splitting the ITS framework into a core concept part and several implementation parts. Using the role objects will allow the extension of the core concept without having to change it, and thus without having to touch the framework layering. The role objects will also provide a clear understanding of ITS user models (the responsibilities and collaboration within the given role). The work takes software engineering know-how and applies it to produce the basis for educational materials. The ITS Framework will be extended to various applications of wide use. The problem of maintaining the consistency of objects across several layers is a key problem in many areas, such as business process modeling and object oriented domain modeling. The solution to it would benefit a large community.
Scope: The proposed ITS Framework has potentially large applications. The cost of its dissemination and duplication is small. The results could serve as a basis for a future product of wide interest in education. Fayad is an authority in Object Oriented (OO) software development in general, and OO application frameworks in particular. Intelligent tutoring systems seem to be ideal test systems for application frameworks. The project may have far-reaching results and high impact on a large number of students, teachers, and researchers in Egypt and in other developing countries. The software industry in both the United States and Egypt will benefit from this research. The project will support a US graduate student who will have an opportunity to gain experience through this international collaboration. This proposal meets the INT objective of supporting collaborative research in areas of mutual interest. This project is being supported under the US-Egypt Joint Fund Program, which provides grants to scientists and engineers in both countries to carry out these cooperative activities.
