A formative evaluation of a tutor for scatterplot generation: evidence on difficulty factors

摘要

We present an intelligent tutoring system for teaching students to generate scatterplots, driven by recent analyses of the difficulty factors in this domain. Prior systems in this domain emphasized point plotting and choosing appropriate scale and bounds. Initial difficulty factors analysis suggested that choosing the correct variables for the graph is the most important difficulty factor. Student performance using the system indicated that errors in point plotting are relatively easy to remediate, but that both scale choice and variable choice are more difficult to remediate. Detailed analysis of the difficulties students had with these skills while using our tutor provides insight into how to remedy them in future systems.