Abstract:
Methods and systems for instruction of students in a classroom environment using a Virtual Teaching Assistant. The method includes providing an assessment with at least one set of remediation criteria and communicating the assessment to a recipient. Next a response is received from the recipient and the response is compared with the remediation criteria. Based on the comparison a tutorial is assigned to the recipient.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
       [0001]     Not applicable.  
       STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT  
       [0002]     Not applicable.  
       BACKGROUND  
       [0003]     Many problems in education today stem from overcrowded classrooms. One of the symptoms of an overcrowded classroom is a high student-to-teacher ratio, thus resulting in some students not receiving the requisite attention needed for success. Overcrowding in the classroom typically does not allow teachers to effectively monitor students that fall behind or do not fully grasp the topics on a daily basis. Some other times students that fall behind are not inclined to speak up or ask for help because they feel embarrassed to do so in front of their peers.  
       SUMMARY  
       [0004]     One approach to address an overcrowded classroom with a high student to teacher ratio is to create an environment where students are provided with individualized instruction from their teacher. One such environment may be accomplished using virtual technology in the classroom that allows for confidential interaction between students and teachers. Specifically, a Virtual Teaching Assistant (VTA) allows teachers to give, and students to receive, individualized instruction. The VTA allows teachers to monitor a student&#39;s progress and assess student comprehension. Further, the VTA allows teachers to prescribe individualized instruction based on the needs of each student. Still further, the VTA allows teachers to provide instruction in a confidential manner, thereby eliminating the possibility of embarrassing the student.  
         [0005]     The VTA is an application that allows teachers to assess student comprehension and to automatically administer individualized instruction to a student who is in need of special attention. The VTA consists of two applications, a VTA Teacher application and a VTA Student application. The VTA Teacher application is used by a teacher to conduct an assessment and then measure the progress of the student. The VTA Student application is used by the student to receive and take the assessment and then to read a prescribed tutorial from the teacher via the VTA Teacher application.  
         [0006]     The assessment consists of an Assessment Learning Resource and a Remediation Criteria Set. The Assessment Learning Resource is a reference to any form of the assessment. The assessment typically includes a quiz having one or more questions that require a response by the user. The Remediation Criteria Set is a group consisting of at least one Remediation Criteria Rule and at least one Tutorial Directive. The Tutorial Directive is evaluated to provide information about the assessment and also prescribes the individualized instructional content for the student. A Remediation Criteria Rule is a rule that is based on the student&#39;s response to an assessment question and is evaluated to a true/false value. The rules determine the instructional content type provided to students based on assessment responses. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0007]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram of a computing system environment;  
         [0008]      FIG. 2  is a block diagram of a Virtual Teaching Assistant (VTA) component summary;  
         [0009]      FIG. 3  is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary process for implementing the VTA;  
         [0010]      FIG. 4  is a schematic screen shot showing a quiz overview portion of the VTA teacher application;  
         [0011]      FIG. 5  is a schematic screen shot showing a quiz questions portion of the VTA teacher application;  
         [0012]      FIG. 6  is a schematic screen shot showing a remediation rules portion of the VTA teacher application;  
         [0013]      FIG. 7  is a schematic screen shot showing a browse function of the VTA teacher application;  
         [0014]      FIG. 8  is a schematic screen shot showing a search function the of VTA teacher application;  
         [0015]      FIG. 9  is a schematic screen shot showing a quiz administration portion the of VTA teacher application;  
         [0016]      FIG. 10  is a schematic screen shot showing a pop-up dialog box;  
         [0017]      FIG. 11  is a schematic screen shot showing a VTA student application with a suggested Tutorial Directive;  
         [0018]      FIG. 12  is a schematic screen shot showing a report in the VTA teacher application; and  
         [0019]      FIG. 13  is a schematic screen shot showing a report in the VTA student application.  
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0020]     The present invention will be better understood from the detailed description provided below and from the accompanying drawings of various embodiments of the invention. The detailed description and drawings, however, should not be read to limit the invention to the specific embodiments. Rather, these specifics are provided for explanatory purposes that help the invention to be better understood.  
         [0000]     Exemplary Operating Environment  
         [0021]     Referring to the drawings in general, and initially to  FIG. 1  in particular, an exemplary computing system environment on which embodiments of the present invention may be implemented is illustrated and designated generally as reference numeral  20 . It will be understood and appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that the illustrated computing system environment  20  is merely an example of one suitable computing environment and is not intended to suggest any limitation as to the scope of use or functionality of the invention. Neither should the computing system environment  20  be interpreted as having any dependency or requirement relating to any single component or combination of components illustrated therein.  
         [0022]     The present invention may be operational with numerous other general purpose or special purpose computing system environments or configurations. Examples of well-known computing systems, environments, and/or configurations that may be suitable for use with the present invention include, by way of example only, personal computers, server computers, hand-held or laptop devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based systems, programmable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers, distributed computing environments that include any of the above-mentioned systems or devices, and the like.  
         [0023]     The present invention may be described in the general context of computer-executable instructions, such as program modules being executed by a computer. Generally, program modules include, but are not limited to, routines, programs, objects, components, and data structures that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. The present invention may also be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules may be located in local and/or remote computer storage media including, by way of example only, memory storage devices.  
         [0024]     With continued reference to  FIG. 1 , the exemplary computing system environment  20  includes a general purpose computing device in the form of a server  22 . Components of the server  22  may include, without limitation, a processing unit, internal system memory, and a suitable system bus for coupling various system components, including a database cluster  24  with the server  22 . The system bus may be any of several types of bus structures, including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, and a local bus, using any of a variety of bus architectures.  
         [0025]     The server  22  typically includes, or has access to, a variety of computer readable media, for instance, database cluster  24 . Computer readable media can be any available media that may be accessed by server  22 , and includes volatile and nonvolatile media, as well as removable and non-removable media. By way of example, and not limitation, computer readable media may include computer storage media and communication media. Computer storage media may include, without limitation, volatile and nonvolatile media, as well as removable and nonremovable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information, such as computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data. In this regard, computer storage media may include, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVDs) or other optical disk storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage, or other magnetic storage device, or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which may be accessed by the server  22 . Communication media typically embodies computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data in a modulated data signal, such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism, and may include any information delivery media. As used herein, the term “modulated data signal” refers to a signal that has one or more of its attributes set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal. By way of example, and not limitation, communication media includes wired media such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, RF, infrared, and other wireless media. Combinations of any of the above also may be included within the scope of computer readable media.  
         [0026]     The computer storage media discussed above and illustrated in  FIG. 1 , including database cluster  24 , provide storage of computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules, and other data for the server  22 .  
         [0027]     The server  22  may operate in a computer network  26  using logical connections to one or more remote computers  28 . Remote computers  28  may be located at a variety of locations in an education environment, for example, but not limited to, classrooms, libraries, etc. The remote computers  28  may be personal computers, servers, routers, network PCs, peer devices, other common network nodes, or the like, and may include some or all of the components described above in relation to the server  22 . The devices can be personal digital assistants or other like devices.  
         [0028]     Exemplary computer networks  26  may include, without limitation, local area networks (LANS) and/or wide area networks (WANs). Such networking environments are commonplace in offices, enterprise-wide computer networks, intranets, and the Internet. When utilized in a WAN networking environment, the server  22  may include a modem or other means for establishing communications over the WAN, such as the Internet. In a networked environment, program modules or portions thereof may be stored in the server  22 , in the database cluster  24 , or on any of the remote computers  28 . For example, and not by way of limitation, various application programs may reside on the memory associated with any one or more of the remote computers  28 . It will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that the network connections shown are exemplary and other means of establishing a communications link between the computers (e.g., server  22  and remote computers  28 ) may be utilized.  
         [0029]     In operation, a user may enter commands and information into the server  22  or convey the commands and information to the server  22  via one or more of the remote computers  28  through input devices, such as a keyboard, a pointing device (commonly referred to as a mouse), a trackball, or a touch pad. Other input devices may include, without limitation, microphones, scanners, or the like. Commands and information may also be sent directly from a remote computers  28  to the server  22 . In addition to a monitor, the server  22  and/or remote computers  28  may include other peripheral output devices, such as speakers and a printer.  
         [0030]     Although many other internal components of the server  22  and the remote computers  28  are not shown, those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that such components and their interconnection are well known. Accordingly, additional details concerning the internal construction of the server  22  and the remote computers  28  are not further disclosed herein.  
         [0000]     Virtual Teaching Assistant  
         [0031]     As shown in  FIG. 2 , a Virtual Teaching Assistant (VTA)  30  is an application that allows teachers to assess student comprehension and to automatically administer individualized instruction to students who are in need of special attention. The VTA  30  is primarily a set of desktop applications that allows teachers to perform an informal assessment of student comprehension for a limited subject matter and to prescribe additional learning resources for students who are in need. The VTA  30  helps a teacher provide individualized informational content to a student in response to the assessment. The VTA  30  consists of two applications, a VTA teacher application  32  and a VTA student application  34 . These applications can be implemented on a graphical operating system, such as the WINDOWS family of operating systems from the Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash. The VTA teacher application  32  is used by the teacher to conduct assessments and then measure the progress of the student. The VTA student application  34  is used by the student to receive and take the assessment and then to read a prescribed tutorial from the teacher via the VTA teacher application  32 . The VTA, including both the VTA teacher application  32  and the VTA student application  34  may be used on the remote computers  28  shown in  FIG. 1 .  
         [0032]     Referring again to  FIG. 2 , the VTA teacher application  32  and the VTA student application  34  utilize various other applications. When used in a Microsoft WINDOWS environment, these applications are also WINDOWS-based applications. It should, of course, be understood that these application can be designed and implemented based on other operating systems. The VTA teacher and the VTA student applications  32 ,  34  utilize a VTA Web Service  36 , a VTA Library  38 , and a VTA Database  40 . An example of the VTA Database  40  is Microsoft SQL Server 2000 or 2005 database. An example of the VTA Web Service  36  is Microsoft Windows Server 2003 with IIS 6. Each of the VTA components  36 ,  38 , and  40  are deployed in an environment that includes a Microsoft Message Queue Server (MSMQ) multicast queue  42 . All of the above VTA components  36 ,  38 , and  40  are available from the Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash. It should be understood that other components of comparable functionality could also be used.  
         [0033]     The VTA web service  36  is used to obtain data from the local school to determine the teacher&#39;s class schedule. If the teacher does not have a class section scheduled for the current local time, then the VTA web service  36  will disable the option to send the assessment to the class. The VTA web service  36  communicates with the VTA teacher and the VTA student applications  32 ,  34  to determine if a class section is scheduled and whether an assessment may be sent.  
         [0034]     The VTA Library  38  is a class library that contains programmatic functions that are important to the functioning of the VTA web service  36 , the VTA teacher application  32 , and the VTA student application  34 . The VTA Database  40  stores information about the quizzes that are sent to the classes.  
         [0035]     As shown in  FIG. 3 , a described method may be implemented using the VTA  30 . First, a teacher at step  62  provides the assessment  44 , shown in  FIG. 3 , that will be further discussed below. The teacher may search the VTA Database  40  for an existing assessment  44  at step  64 . Alternatively, the teacher may either create assessment  44  at step  66  using the VTA teacher application  32  or copy and edit an existing assessment  44  from the VTA Database  40  at step  68 . An example of an assessment  44  created using the VTA teacher application  32  is discussed below with reference to  FIGS. 4-9 . If the teacher has created an assessment  44 , the teacher can publish the assessment  44  to the VTA database  40 . Once the assessment  44  is published on the VTA Database  40 , the assessment  44  is shared with other teachers. The assessment  44  is saved, for example, in the form of an XML document. The assessment  44  may be saved on the teachers local machine or  
         [0036]     Once the assessment  44  is created, questions and rules may be created or modified by the teacher at step  70 . The assessment  44  consists of an Assessment Learning Resource  46  and an Remediation Criteria Set  48 , both of which will be further discussed below. The Remediation Criteria Set  48  is a group consisting of at least one Remediation Criteria Rule  52  and at least one Tutorial Directive  54 . The teacher uses the VTA teacher application  32  to create the Assessment Learning Resource  46  at step  70 . Next the teacher creates the Remediation Criteria Rules  52  at step  72  and the Tutorial Directives  54  at step  74 . The Remediation Criteria Rules  52  and the Tutorial Directives  54  define what type of targeted instructional content should be provided to students.  
         [0037]     At step  76 , the teacher uses the VTA teacher application  32  to send the assessment  44  to the students. The VTA teacher application  32  uses the VTA Web Service  36  to determine whether the teacher has a class section assigned for the current local time. If no class section is assigned for the current local time, the application will disable the option to send the quiz to the class.  
         [0038]     As shown in  FIG. 10 , once the assessment  44  has been sent at step  76 , each student who is assigned to the teacher&#39;s current class section will be prompted with a dialog box  78  on their screen informing them that the teacher has assigned them a quiz  45  and that they need to take it now. The student will not have the ability to dismiss the quiz  45  until either they have completed it or the class ends. The teacher has the ability to recall the quiz  45  at step  80 , in which case the application will disappear from the student&#39;s screen. The dialog box  78  contains a number of boxes  82  that may be checked by the student. The boxes  82  correspond to the Tutorial Directive  54  made available by the teacher in the VTA.  
         [0039]     Once the student has completed the quiz  45 , the student selects an “I&#39;m finished” button  84  and the assessment  44  is returned to the teacher at step  86  via the VTA student application  36 . Further, as each assessment  44  is completed at step  86 , the VTA  30  will grade the assessment  44  comparing the student-provided answers with the stored answers in the VTA database  40 .  
         [0040]     At step  86 , the students who have been determined to need extra help based on the Remediation Criteria Set  48  will see a pop-up window  88 , as shown in  FIG. 11 , appear on their screens. The pop-up window  88  will show links  90  to learning material that the student has been assigned. The student will select the link  90  and a tutorial  91  will appear on the screen. While a video tutorial is shown, it should be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art that any type of tutorial may be used. Once the student has completed the tutorial  91 , he will comment on whether or not he found the material helpful.  
         [0041]     Once each student is finished at step  92 , the teacher and student will be presented with a report  94 ,  98  at step  95  as will be further discussed below.  
         [0042]      FIG. 4-6  and  9  show exemplary screen shots illustrating an assessment  44  on the VTA Teacher application  32 . Referring now to  FIG. 4-6  and  9 , the creation of the assessment  44  will be discussed. The VTA Teacher Application is a window containing four tabs: the Quiz Overview  108  ( FIG. 4 ), the Quiz Questions  110  ( FIG. 5 ), the Remediation Rules  112  ( FIG. 6 ), and the Quiz Administration  114  ( FIG. 9 ). By selecting a tab, the teacher is able to maneuver within the VTA Teacher application  32  to create the assessment  44 .  
         [0043]      FIG. 4  shows an exemplary screen shot of the Quiz Overview  108  portion of the assessment  44  of the VTA Teacher application  32 . The Quiz Overview  108  is where the teacher will enter such information about the quiz including but not limited to the title  116 , the author  118 , the description  120 , the category  122 , and the learning standard  124 . The teacher may also check several boxes  126  that control whether or not the quiz may be shared with others. It should be noted that the title  116  is a required field while the remaining fields are optional.  
         [0044]     The assessment  44  may be created using the VTA teacher application  32  via a Learning Management software application or may already exist in the VTA database  40 . To create the questions  50  for the assessment  44  the teacher selects Quiz Questions  110 .  FIG. 5  shows an exemplary screen shot illustrating Quiz Questions  110 . Some examples of the types of questions  50  include, but are not limited to, multiple choice, true/false, fill-in-the-blank, or text matching. The teacher must first click the Quiz Questions tab  110  to define the questions  50 . The teacher has several options for defining the questions  50  that may be used in a quiz  45 . However, these options are not meant to be limiting. First, a teacher can drag and drop the questions  50  and answers  128  from any suitable application that supports drag and drop. The teacher may also simply add the questions  50  and answers  128  into a text box in the Quiz Questions  110  portion by typing in the questions  50  and answers  128 . Further, the teacher may also choose to open an existing quiz  45  or assessment  44  and import questions  50  therefrom.  
         [0045]     If the teacher chooses to open an existing quiz, the teacher will select FILE  130 , and then open quiz, not shown, and an “open an existing quiz” window  132  will appear as shown in  FIGS. 7 and 8 . The “open an existing quiz” window  132  allows the user to either browse or search for the assessment  44  by selecting a Browse Assessment tab  134  or a Search Assessment tab  136 . By clicking on the Browse Assessment tab  134  the teacher is allowed to browse for the quiz  45  or assessment  44 . The user may browse the on his computer by selecting a My Computer option  138  or the network by selecting a Network option  140 . If the My Computer option  138  is selected, the teacher will be provided with a traditional open file dialog, not shown, that will allow the teacher to select the quiz  45 . If the teacher chooses the Network option  140 , a hierarchical display  142  will show a listing of categories assessments  44  with the existing quizzes  45 . Thus, if the teacher wishes to open the existing assessment  44 , he may simply highlight the assessment  44  and select an “Open Assessment” button  146 . Once open, the teacher may use the entire assessment  44  or select specific questions.  
         [0046]     The teacher may also select the Search Assessment tab  136 , which allow the teacher to search for the assessment  44  using a keyword search, by a category, or by a learning standard. If a keyword search is used, the teacher simply types the keyword into a search field  148  and selects a “search” button  150 . The keyword search searches the fields of the quiz overview  108 , specifically but not limited to the title  116 , author  118 , description  120 , category  122 , and learning standard  124  and displays a result  150  of the search in a results field  152 . The teacher then selects an “Open Assessment” button  160  to open the assessment  44 .  
         [0047]     The teacher may also search by the category  122  in a category field  154  or by learning standard  124  in a learning standard field  156 . It should be understood that the teacher searches in the category field  154  and learning standard field  156 , presses the “search” button  150  and the results  150  are displayed the results field  152 . Once the results  150  are displayed the results field  152 , the teacher selects the “Open Assessment” button  160  to open the assessment  44 .  
         [0048]     Once the questions  50  of the assessment  44  have been defined, the teacher will select the Remediation Rules  112  tab.  FIG. 6  shows an exemplary screen shot illustrating Remediation Rules  112  of the assessment  44  of the VTA Teacher application  32 . As stated above, the assessment  44  consists of the Assessment Learning Resource  46  and a Remediation Criteria Set  48 . The Assessment Learning Resource  46  is a reference to any form of the assessment  44 . Some examples of Assessment Learning Resources  46  include but are not limited to the quiz  45  or the test. Specifically, the quiz  45  of  FIG. 10  is created using the VTA Teacher application  32 . As shown in  FIGS. 5, 6 , and  10 , the assessment  44  and the quiz  45  include at least one question  50  that requires a response by the user or student.  
         [0049]     Referring again to  FIG. 6 , the Remediation Criteria Set  48  is a group consisting of one or more Remediation Criteria Rules  52  and one or more Tutorial Directives  54  that are evaluated together. Together the Assessment Learning Resource  46  and the Remediation Criteria Set  48  provide information about the quiz  45  as well as which student responses will lead to a corresponding tutorial of instruction content being prescribed for the student as will be further discussed below. The Remediation Criteria Rule  52  includes one or more rules  56  that evaluate to a true/false value using logical operators based on a student&#39;s response to the assessment question  50 . In other words, the rule  56  is evaluated against a response to an assessment question  50  to a value, the value being a true or a false. Each Remediation Criteria Rule  52  is used to evaluate the true/false value for each student taking each Assessment Learning Resource  46  defined in the VTA  30 . The teacher can create an unbounded number of rules and the rules can range in complexity from very simple to very complex. The rules  56  determine the type of instructional content provided to students responding to the assessment  44  in a particular way.  
         [0050]     Some examples of Remediation Criteria Rules  52  are as follows:  
         [0051]     Rule Example #1: IF a student receives a score of less that 70%, assign the student educational content at link to Uniform Resource Locator (URL).  
         [0052]     Rule Example #2: IF a student answers question #7 incorrectly AND answers question #12 incorrectly, assign the student the educational content at link to URL.  
         [0053]     Rule Example #3: IF a student answers question #2 incorrectly AND answers question #7 incorrectly AND leaves either question #14 or question #15 unanswered, assign the student the educational content at link to URL.  
         [0054]     Rule Example #4: IF a student answers question #5 incorrectly OR answers question #13 incorrectly OR receives a total score of less than 75% OR leaves more than two questions unanswered, assign the student the educational content at link to URL.  
         [0055]     The above example are merely for illustrative purposes and should not be viewed as limiting in any way. As should be understood, the rules that can be defined are virtually limitless.  
         [0056]     Once the value is derived from the Remediation Criteria Rule  52 , at least one Tutorial Directive  54  is assigned to the student. The Tutorial Directive  54  is an assignment  58  given to a student in response to the student&#39;s response to the assessment  44 . The assignment  58  is expressed in the form of a reference or link  60  to a URL. The link  60  provides access to educational content and materials designed to reinforce a learning objective. The links  60  may already exist if an existing assessment  44  is used. Alternatively, if the teacher creates the assessment  44 , the teacher may search for links that are appropriate for the material tested in the assessment  44 . To choose the link  60  for the assignment  58 , the teacher simply select the “assign” button  61 .  
         [0057]     Once the teacher has created the assessment  44 , the teacher selects Quiz Administration  114 .  FIG. 9  shows an exemplary screen shot illustrating the Quiz Administration  114 . At this time the assessment  44  is ready to be sent to the students. The Quiz Administration  114  portion contains a “class selection” field  162  that shows the current class for the teacher and a “my students” field  164  that shows a list  166  of each student enrolled in the current class. Once the teacher has selected the current class and an assessment  44  is loaded, the teacher selects a “send to class” button  168  in order to send the quiz  45  to the class. As further shown in  FIG. 9 , once the quiz  45  is sent, the list  166  shows the progress of each individual student taking the quiz  45 .  
         [0058]      FIG. 10  shows an exemplary screen shot illustrating a quiz  45  sent to a student. Once the assessment  44  is sent the dialog box  78  appears with the quiz  45 . The dialog box  78  contains a number of questions  50  with corresponding boxes  82  that may be checked by the student. The boxes  82  correspond to the Tutorial Directive  54  made available by the teacher in the VTA  30 . The boxes  82  allow the student to choose whether he would like to receive the instructional content immediately or at a later time.  
         [0059]     As shown in  FIGS. 12 and 13  and as discussed above both the teacher and students will receive a report  94 ,  104 . The teacher will receive the report  94  in the VTA teachers application  32 . The report  94  shows a list  96  of which students are automatically assigned tutorials based on the Remediation Criteria, and which tutorials are being assigned to which student. A “view details” button  98  is shown where, if selected, allows the teacher access to a list of students who have completed reviewing the tutorial material and their responses for how they were helped or not helped by the material, as well as the list of students who have not yet completed their review of the assigned tutorial materials. An “email student” button  100  is also included that allow the teacher to communicate with the student. A drop-down menu  102  is shown that allows for multiple sorting options. Some options may include but are not limited to sort by class period, class type or grade.  
         [0060]     As shown in  FIG. 13 , each student will also be presented with the report  104  in the VTA student application  34 . The report  104  will include the assigned tutorial materials  58  from each class based on the Remediation Criteria. As stated above, the assignment  58  is expressed in the link  60  provided on the report  104 . The link  60  provides access to educational content and materials designed to reinforce a learning objective. Further once the student has completed a review of the assignment  58  in the link  60  a checkmark  106  will appear indicating such.  
         [0061]     From the foregoing it will be appreciated that, although specific embodiments have been described herein for purposes of illustration, various modifications may be made without deviating from the spirit and scope. Accordingly, the invention is not limited except as by the appended claims.