Teaching machine programs that generate problems as a function of interaction with students
Leonard Uhr · 1969
This paper presents and describes a computer program that will generate specific problems to give a student that are tailor made to his performance. The program is initially given only general specifications for the type of problem. At run time, as a function of the student's successes and failures, the program a) computes appropriate hints, b) decides whether to make the next problem easier or more difficult, c) computes the next problem, d) outputs it to the student, e) computes the answer to the problem, and f) compares the student's answer with its computed answer. The hints and problem types coded into the present program are relatively simple, but it appears that this method can be extended to handle a wide variety of content areas, including arithmetic, algebra, logic, and the teaching of facts, as in civics, geography, and foreign languages. This method in effect has the computer write the programmed instructional materials. The human being need no longer write the detailed frames, but instead writes the general problem types, and the computer code that generates particular problems from them. The program is now also in a position to generate problems that are especially appropriate for and tailor-made to the student's current state of knowledge.