Seminar by Aparna Lalingkar
Application of Ontology in Intelligent Tutoring System for Teaching Word Problems in Mathematics
Aparna Lalingkar
IIIT Bangalore, Bangalore
Date: Thursday, February 13th, 2014
Time: 4:00 PM
Venue: CS101.Abstract:
The Indian National Curriculum Framework has development of mathematical thinking and problem solving ability as part of objectives. However, recent studies conducted at Indian metros reported concern for students' mathematics learning. Regular classroom teaching, except in some private coaching, does not include teaching of problem solving in Mathematics and involves mere practicing exercises and drill of known exercises. Ontology is a set of concepts and relationships among them, and is a term in computer science derived from original philosophical notion. Since childhood we develop ontology of the notions we learn. This ontology gets expanded when we keep learning more. Ontologies used for teaching need to incorporate elements of mathematical thinking popularized by problem solving experts. So, teaching by using such ontology of problems, problem solving methods, and tasks would be beneficial to students. These ontologies together can very well fit into the general structure of Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS).
In this talk, we discuss an ontology named MONTO that can be used for intelligent tutoring of word problems in mathematics. To show the proof of concept, we chose all word problems from a domain of Mensuration 3D Shape from CBSE syllabus and analyzed them to develop an ontology. We have implemented an intelligent tutoring system by using the MONTO ontology. As a part of the evaluation, robustness of the ontology is checked against problems of ICSE syllabus and SSC Maharashtra board syllabus of the same domain. In addition, the usefulness of the functionality of the implemented system derived from ontology at the back end is checked by showing it to experts.
About the speaker:
Aparna Lalingkar is full time PhD Student (5th year) in International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore. Her research interests are use of technology for teaching problem solving in mathematics, AI applications to Education, use of ICT, Semantic Web Technology for Mathematics Education. Her primary work is in application of ontology for teaching word problems in Mathematics. Aparna has done her MPhil from Cambridge University, UK in Mathematics Education research and MSc Mathematics from University of Pune. Over the years she has worked with a variety of audience right from tribal students, gifted students to University students. Aparna has received fellowships from HP Labs, India for her PhD and from Cambridge Commonwealth Trust –DFID, UK for her MPhil. She is serving as member of technical committee for several conferences in the field.