Making claims about teaching systems

In recent years there have been a number of developments and changes within ITS research. Two of the areas that are coming to be understood as increasingly important are the role of evaluation and consideration of the interface component of an ITS. In the following paper we describe how semi-formal HCI evaluation methodologies which focus on the designer’s pedagogical intentions and the user’s experience of solving tasks can be applied to the formative evaluation of intelligent tutoring systems. To illustrate this, we present a design rationale and an analysis of the psychological ‘claims’ embodied within a prototype ITS.