Development of Web-based intelligent tutoring system for SDView

SouthDakotaView (SDView) is a program funded by the United States Geological Survey that provides satellite remote sensing imagery for a variety of applications, including education; however, an educational tool that utilizes the SDView imagery has yet not been developed. In particular, there is presently no easy way for students to make use of the SDView satellite imagery in learning elementary geography. An image map viewer could be useful for K-12 students to understand the relationship between image data and geographic information. A web-based intelligent tutoring system has been used in many educational systems as an efficient way to deliver educational material. In an intelligent tutoring system, an adaptive testing scheme can be employed to accurately evaluate a student's knowledge level by utilizing a test.;Therefore, we focus on developing a web-based intelligent tutoring system for elementary geography students using an adaptive testing scheme. In this thesis, a prototype system, called SD-ITS, has been developed for a web-based geographic learning system. The prototype system is focused on applying an adaptive testing scheme and making an interactive image map for the intelligent tutoring system. This thesis demonstrates that the prototype system, SD-ITS, controls the student's test progress and has the ability to provide appropriate level of tutoring information from SDView or other archives for the students. This system adaptively adjusts the geography testing for each student on the basis of his/her knowledge level. In addition, an interactive image map application provides tutoring information that helps the students comprehend the real geographic information. In this thesis, the prototype system aims to motivate elementary students to learn more geography information through adaptive testing and an interactive geography maps for tutoring purpose.