FOR INTELLIGENT EMBEDDED TRAINING

Software applications play a critical role in many work environments. These applications may be general purpose, such as word-processing and spreadsheet tools, or tailored to specific mission functions, such as systems for airtraffic management and military “command and control” (C). End-user training is critical if these applications are to be adopted and used effectively. With OPTEMPO up, and training budgets under constant pressure to “do more with less,” it is more important than ever to bring training to the users and enable them to learn whenever they have time, wherever they may be. One way to accomplish this is to embed a training system in the mission application itself. Such embedded training systems (ETSs) have been used to varying degrees throughout the military services, and the United States Army has mandated the use of embedded training techniques for all new systems it procures. Experience has shown that application-operation skills are learned best when trainees are given extensive “handson”, interactive coached practice on the mission application to be used on the job. Our research at MITRE focuses on developing ETSs that approximate the advantages of one-to-one expert human tutoring through the use of intelligent computer-assisted instruction (ICAI) techniques. For ICAI-based ETSs to support interactive coached practice, they must have some means of observing both the trainee’s actions on the mission application, and the application’s response(s) to those actions, and also a way to take control of the mission application for the purpose of demonstration or to set up the initial environment for training. To provide this service, MITRE has developed a technique called software instrumentation, whereby we noninvasively modify the mission application’s computing environment (rather than the application itself) and thus gain the required forms of access for our ETS. We discuss this general technique and our implemented software instrumentation tools for X-Windows and standalone Java applications. Biographical Sketches: Brant A. Cheikes is a Principal Scientist and Associate Department Head at The MITRE Corporation, in the Information Technology Center’s department of Information Management & Instructional Systems. He holds a B.S. degree in Computer Engineering from Boston University, and M.S.E. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer and Information Science from the University of Pennsylvania. Since joining MITRE in 1993, Dr. Cheikes has both supported and directed research in advanced instructional technologies, including student modeling, modular training-system architecture, and intelligent embedded training. His current research focuses on the design of an intelligent embedded training agent that coaches trainees using spoken natural-language dialogue combined with on-screen pointing gestures. Abigail S. Gertner is a Lead Scientist at The MITRE Corporation, in the Information Technology Center’s department of Information Management & Instructional Systems. She received her A.B. in Psychology from Harvard University, and her M.S.E. and Ph.D. in Computer and Information Science from the University of Pennsylvania. Her research interests are primarily in the areas of plan recognition, user modeling, and cooperative response generation in decision support and intelligent tutoring systems. She has pursued these interests in the context of a decision support system for emergency medicine, and an intelligent tutoring system for university Physics. She is currently developing an intelligent embedded training agent. SOFTWARE INSTRUMENTATION FOR INTELLIGENT EMBEDDED TRAINING Brant A. Cheikes and Abigail S. Gertner The MITRE Corporation Bedford, Massachusetts