DESIGNING AN INTELLIGENT TUTORING SYSTEM MODEL FOR AFAAN OROMOO

Abstract

Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) is an intelligent computer system design aimed to provide tutoring services and support the learner’s community on a specific subject through customized instructions and support guidelines for interacting with learners through localized language-based support and feedback. In Ethiopia, the existing state of art systems of teaching and learning are still lagging behind in terms of adaptability, ease of guidance, interaction, instant support, anywhere, anytime over any device access, digitalization, and personalized learning. Also, the applications of intelligent systems with localized customization and contextualization are not widely adopted. Hence, the learner’s community is lacking behind for such technology-enabled solutions towards improving their learning capabilities. The intelligent language tutoring system is also one of the applications for providing tutoring support to language learners. Afaan Oromo is one of the major languages that is widely spoken and used in Ethiopia. As a primary observation, the traditional way of teaching and learning Afaan Oromoo has several challenges and limitations. This research study proposed an intelligent tutoring system model (ITS) for providing tutoring support and services while learning Afaan Oromoo using text-based interaction for the localized application context. The designed ITS model has three domains with different components: the student domain, tutoring domain, and knowledge domain. The student domain uses a Model tracing algorithm to follow and track students’ behavior while they use the system, and Bayesian knowledge tracing is used to estimate student knowledge status and used to update student status in the student domain in the proposed model. The tutoring domain uses a simple Bayesian network with a direct acyclic graph to model topic dependence in Afaan Oromo. The production rule is used to represent the knowledge domain of the proposed model. The proposed model can provide a tremendous instrumental for supporting the Afaan Oromoo. The proposed ITS model provides individualized feedback and supports the individual’s linguistic mistakes while learning in the text interaction formats. The prototype s developed for the newly proposed ITS model using Cognitive Tutor Authoring Tool (CTAT). The user acceptance test has also been done to check the acceptance status of the research outcomes. The acceptance test clearly indicated a high level of acceptance, i.e., 85.7 % of the model upon the demo of the prototype. This implies that the ITS model can be a new knowledge contribution to the domain towards the betterment of educational systems in Ethiopia, especially learning Afaan Oromo. The study concludes that ITS solution can be a great instrumental for supporting education and the Afaan Oromo through the intervention and application of Artificial Intelligence.