A general problem describer for computer assisted instruction.

Abstract

Currently in computer assisted instruction systems a number of problems are presented to each student during a problem session and each individual problem is specified by the author of the session. A better approach might be to provide the author with a language in which he can describe the general type of problem he wants his students to be taught and let the machine generate the specific problems. This would relieve the teacher of the task of writing out a whole series of problems for each general concept he wishes to teach. This thesis presents a subset of English and mathematical notation which the teacher can use to describe a general problem type. The PROBLEM DESCRIPTION PROCESSOR accepts the general problem description and produces a low level language which is used by the PROBLEM DESCRIPTION INTERPRETER to produce specific problems. This system works for fourth grade arithmetic problems and could be extended for use in other areas of instruction.