An Actor Based Architecture for Intelligent Tutoring Systems

The evolution of intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) toward the use of multiple learning strategies calls on a multi-agent architecture. We designed an ITS where several agents assume different pedagogical roles; consequently, we called them actors. We first describe the conceptual architecture of an actor which allows it to be reactive, instructable, adaptive and cognitive. We then provide a detailed view of this architecture and show how it functions with an example involving the different actors of a new learning strategy, the learning by disturbing strategy.