Diagnosing Errors from Off-Path Steps in Model-Tracing Tutors

Model-tracing tutors were shown to be effective for the tutoring of problem solving tasks, but they usually lack the capability to provide feedback on learners’ off-path steps. In this paper, we define a method, inspired by Sierra, to diagnose many of the learners’ errors from their off-path steps. This method is implemented in Astus, a model-tracing tutor authoring framework. We show how Astus diagnose errors from off-path steps and use the resulting diagnostic to generate negative feedback.