An Intelligent Tutoring System for Medical Imaging

Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) are increasingl y breaking free of the lab and entering the classroom. These practice-based software systems promise significant learning gains over more traditional e-learning approaches. However, their w idespread uptake is still hampered by the difficulty in building them. Over the past ten year s we have developed ITS authoring tools that have evolved to the point that it is now feasible f or teachers to build their own systems. We report on one such system, an ITS for medical imaging, bui lt by the head of the Medical Imaging Department of a polytechnic institution using VIPER, an ITS authoring system we have developed. Despite requiring no specialist skills (other than domain knowledge) to build, an initial study provides evidence that the resulting ITS is effecti ve at teaching the important concepts of this subject, and demonstrates that is it feasible for t eachers to develop their own intelligent tutoring systems.