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CTAT 1.6.1 Release Notes

26 July 2006

• Downloading and Installing
• System Requirements
• Download CTAT 1.6.1
• New users, and users with CTAT version 1.5+
• Users with a version of CTAT prior to 1.5
• What's new in CTAT 1.6.1
• Upgrading an interface to CTAT version 1.6.1
• Java
• Flash

Downloading and Installing

System Requirements

CTAT system requirements are commensurate with those of the Java Runtime Environment. Additional requirements may exist, depending on your authoring environment (Flash, NetBeans, and/or Eclipse).

• Download Java Runtime Environment (J2RE)
• Download CTAT 1.6.1

New users, and users with CTAT 1.5+

1. Download and install CTAT 1.6.1
2. Compare Java and Flash for authoring and delivery.
3. Download additional software for authoring tutors.

Users with a version of CTAT prior to 1.5

1. Follow the directions for uninstalling CTAT. Users of the Java tools should remove the existing interface template (TutorTemplate) and all CTAT widgets in NetBeans.
2. Download and install CTAT 1.6.1
3. Add the CTAT interface widgets and template to NetBeans.
4. Upgrade any existing interface(s) as described below.

What's New in CTAT 1.6.1

• Updated Flash examples
• Listeners are now usable on DorminComposer combo boxes.
• Fixed a bug where clicking on the Next Hint button in Flash did not display the next hint.
• Fixed an issue where wmeTypes.clp was not saved by the command Save Templates. Templates are now saved in the directory given by the Problem File Directory preference.
• Better character set support: Fixed a bug where a merged graph failed to open if the problems table used to generate it contained special characters instead of HTML entities (e.g., '<' or '&' instead of '&lt;' or '&amp;').

What's New in CTAT 1.6

Changes to the Java tools:

• New node and edge count status appears on main Behavior Recorder window
• Jess updated from 7.0b4 to 7.0b7.
• Jess-Flash integration for creating cognitive tutors in Flash
• Improved Jess performance:
• New, more efficent method for testing student-entered selection, action, and input (SAI) in Jess. By using the function (test-SAI) in your Jess rules, you no longer need to use special-tutor-fact, which modifies working memory and can trigger a potentially expensive pattern matching routine in Jess.
• Tutor-performed steps. These are steps in a behavior graph that the tutor will perform, which can be demonstrated during problem authoring. To create a tutor-performed step, set the Behavior Recorder preference 'Allow tool-performed actions' to true (checked); then right-click an edge and select Edit Student Input Matching. Here you can set Actor to Tutor, which will make the tutor perform the step when it is reached in the graph.
• Suppress tutor feedback. New Behavior Recoder option, 'Suppress tutor feedback', allows you to run a tutor without any feedback to the student, allowing you to log student actions for a pre or post test.
• New cognitive tutor example, the Logic Tutor, included in the release
• Support for listeners of different kinds of events—correct, incorrect, done, and hint request—on all tutorable Java widgets. Using event listeners, you can implement custom behavior that occurs in response to the various events.
• Simulated Student, a machine-learning agent that facilitates authoring of Cognitive Tutors for educators, who are not AI programmers. Instead of building a cognitive model representing a task to be taught by programming production rules, you let SimStudent observe you performing the target task. SimStudent then induces production rules that replicate (and generalize from) your performance. SimStudent is fully functional and ready to use in many domains.
• Multiple Why Not? queries now open in the same window. (A new window can be opened by holding SHIFT and clicking a rule in the Conflict Tree.)
• Simplified ‘mass production’ dialogs
• Improved WebStart support for deploying Java tutors over the Web
• Now rules whose names begin with "bug+" or "buggy" (case-insensitive, where the + is any non-alphabetic character) are buggy. Note that rules beginning with "bug" as part of some other word are not considered bug rules.

Changes to the Flash tools:

• New components: Jumble, Multiple Selection, Media Multiple Selection, ListBox, and Table
• All Flash components now communicate their state to the Behavior Recorder for use with Jess, the Java production rule engine used by CTAT for Cognitive Tutors.
• Support for loading consecutive problem files (BRDs) into a single SWF, which improves continuity across similar problems and reduces load time. It is now also easier to implement problem sections, where transitioning between sections of a problem can be conditional upon interaction with specific widgets.
• New component properties allow you to specify a function to run when the student’s input is either correct or incorrect, removing the need to write an event listener.
• Improved ‘tabbing’, and an option for tabbing vertically or horizontally. Focus advances to the next component in the tab order when input is correct.
• Improved grading (enter text into text field, and press done)
• New visual cue for when a component has ‘focus’ (i.e., is selected for use)
• New status bar on CommShell reports the status of the connection to the Behavior Recorder, and the version number of the component.
• Chinese character rendering by using entities
• Support for dynamically modifying the student interface within a single problem via simple event handlers and an API.
• Enhanced support for developers extending the tutors. For example, new component properties allow you to specify a function to run when the student’s input is either correct or incorrect, removing the need to write an event listener.
• Enhanced Done button supports intra- or inter-tutor navigation and component validation.

Other changes:

Upgrading an Interface to CTAT version 1.6.1

Java

1. Backup your existing projects directory to a separate folder on your hard disk.
2. Ensure that you've completed steps 1-3 listed above.
3. Launch NetBeans, and view your project file hierarchy (Window > Files).
4. Right-click on the folder containing the interface you'd like to upgrade, and click New TutorTemplate.java. In the "File Name" field, specify a name for this file that is anything but the name of the interface you're upgrading. All other fields can be left unchanged. It is not necessary to create a new subdirectory of Projects by modifying the Folder field, although you can if you prefer to do so.
5. Press Finish.
6. Expand the folder that contains the interface you're upgrading. You should see the .java and .class files for the interface you're upgrading, as well as the new .java file with the name you specified in the previous step.
7. Open both the new file and original interface file by double-clicking each of their names in the Files panel.
8. You should see both interfaces in "Design" mode. If you do not, click the button at the top titled "Design" for each interface. The new interface should contain only a blank panel.
9. For your original interface, view the widget objects in the interface using the Component Inspector (Window > GUI Editing > Inspector). Within the Inspector panel (located on the bottom left of the NetBeans window by default), expand the TutorPanel object. This object has a blank icon. You should see a number of widgets appear within it.
10. Select all of the interface widgets. On Windows, this can be accomplished by clicking the first widget inside TutorPanel, then while pressing and holding shift, clicking the last widget.
11. Copy your widgets (CTRL+C on Windows, COMMAND+C on Mac).
12. View the new interface that you created in step 4. Select the JPanel in the Inspector, and paste the widgets (CTRL+V on Windows, COMMAND+V on Mac). You now have a working CTAT 1.5-compatible interface.
13. Run your new interface (SHIFT+F6) to verify that the upgrade procedure worked. If you encounter an error and the file will not run, contact us for assistance.

Flash

1. Install the CTAT 1.6.1 Flash components as described on the Flash configuration page.
2. Open an existing Flash interface (a file with extension .FLA) in the Flash IDE.
3. For each component in the interface that you would like to upgrade, drag that component from the CommComponents section of the Components tab onto the Flash stage.
4. At the "Resolve Component Conflict" prompt, choose "Replace existing component" and press OK. All instances of that component will be upgraded to the new version.
5. Delete the extra component that appeared on the stage.