Usability Heuristic Review of an Intelligent Tutoring System Framework

Abstract: The Generalized Intelligent Framework for Tutoring (GIFT) is an open-source intelligent tutoring system framework software (Goldberg & Sinatra, 2023; Sottilare et al., 2017). GIFT can be used to create tutoring on a topic of the author’s choice, and does not require knowledge of programming to do so. The tutor can be primarily based on slideshows, or it can be more elaborate and include interactive simulations that are incorporated into the software. As GIFT is a research project, the development over the years has mostly been associated with the immediate feature needs to support specific projects. A heuristic review of GIFT’s Authoring tools was conducted and documented in 2016 (Ososky & Sottilare, 2016). However, there are a number of recent features, such as the data extraction tools that were designed for functionality, but have not recently gone through a usability heuristic review. This paper includes an overview of the GIFT data extraction interfaces, and through a usability heuristic review discusses if they align to traditional usability principles such as Nielsen’s 10 usability heuristics (Nielsen, 1994). For those items and interface elements that are inconsistent with general usability principles, suggestions on how to improve them are provided and discussed. The lessons learned and discussed from this paper are applicable for those who are developing similar systems with usability in mind. References:Goldberg, B., & Sinatra, A. M. (2023). Generalized Intelligent Framework for Tutoring (GIFT) SWOT analysis. In Design Recommendations for Intelligent Tutoring Systems: Volume 10-Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) Analysis of Intelligent Tutoring Systems (pp. 9–26). US Army DEVCOM Soldier Center.Nielsen, J. (1994, April). Enhancing the explanatory power of usability heuristics. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 152-158).Sottilare, R. A., Brawner, K. W., Sinatra, A. M., & Johnston, J. H. (2017). An updated concept for a Generalized Intelligent Framework for Tutoring (GIFT). GIFTtutoring. org, 1-19.

Keywords: Usability, Intelligent Tutoring Systems, Generalized Intelligent Framework for Tutoring

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1005029

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