CTAT 2.5.1 Release Notes

What's New in CTAT 2.5.1

CTAT 2.5.1 is primarily a bug-fix release.

General Changes

• Tutor examples are included in this release.
• Improved hint-after-error policy. When the student makes an error and then asks for a hint, the hint should be given on the step on which the error was made (unless that would not be a valid next step to be working on). The rationale for this change is as follows: if the student has just attempted a valid step, received an error indication and then asked for a hint, then the tutor should provide a hint that addresses that error. The current policy would provide a hint based on the currently-focused component, but there’s a great chance that the cursor is there only because the student tabbed out of the previous component to submit that prior wrong answer. The hint policy algorithm is:
  1. record the last student selection and tutor result,
  2. upon a hint request,
     1. if the student’s last attempt was an incorrect (but not an out-of-order) attempt,
     2. then use it to bias the hint selection
  3. a second hint request clears the bias.

  A future version of CTAT will implement this policy for Cognitive Tutors and add another exception to the policy: if the student explicitly refocuses, use the new focus to provide the hint.

• Millisecond timestamps in logging. Both Java and Flash tutors now log timestamps for “tool” and “tutor” messages with millisecond-level precision. In data exported from the PSLC DataShop, the new timestamps will appear in 2 new columns tool_event_time and tutor_event_time, with the values in the format yyyy-mm-dd HH:MM:SS.sss UTC. For example:
  > tool_event_time
  > 2008-10-07 19:47:39.566 UTC
• Tutor-performed steps will now use selection, action, and input from the “matcher” column of the Edit Student Input Matching dialog whenever the matcher is either the Exact matcher or the Formula matcher with an operator of ”=”. In all other cases, tutor-performed steps will use demonstrated values instead of matcher values. (CTAT uses the same rule whenever you click on a state in the behavior graph.)
• UpdateIcon for DorminLabel now works for tutor-performed steps, allowing you to create a step that changes an image in a Java tutor at student-time.
• “Incorrect action not in model (untraceable error)” link type works again
• Wildcard matching on “selection” now works
• The DorminList component allows the user to edit the contents of the list dynamically and save it with the start state in a graph. Now the start state is displayed in the interface when the graph is loaded.
• Fixed a regression affecting example-tracing tutors where the example tracer failed to match incorrect-action links in the presence of groups of steps.
• Changes made to any “demonstrated” values in the Edit Student Input Matching dialog are now saved when saving the behavior graph.
• The skill matrix now works for graphs that have groups of steps in them.
• Feedback to the student (“tutor advice”) is now logged for Suboptimal Action (Fireable Bug) steps.
• Saving Jess facts (File > Save Jess Facts) no longer silently saves Jess templates too. To save Jess templates, select File > Save Jess Templates.)
• The function algebraicMatches() now has better documentation in the Formula Builder and works more consistently.
• Removed red highlighting of regular expression special characters from the Edit Student Input Matching dialog.
• The foil6 library used by SimStudent now has executable permissions so SimStudent works
• Fixed a bug where if there was a production rules file in the cognitive model folder, but no facts or templates had yet been defined, creating a start state created interface facts but no “problem” fact. The “problem” fact is now properly created.
• In Cognitive Tutors, special characters such as ”++”, “>=”, ”-”, and ”=” are now automatically wrapped in double-quotes in the auto-generated working memory file.

Flash-specific changes

• CommTextArea, CommTextInput background color is now more easily configurable in Flash CS3. The background color of these components defaults to white.
• CommTextArea’s “html” parameter now enables HTML rendering within the component.
• CommShell values for correct/incorrect/hint color no longer default to black in Flash CS3. The default value for ‘Correct Color’ is green (#00bb00), for ‘Incorrect Color’ is red (#ffff00), and for ‘Hint Color’ is yellow (#ff0000).

Known Issues

Java

• The less-than sign does not display properly in CTAT's separate hint window (but it’s fine in the integrated hint window).
• In Cognitive Tutors, skills (rule names) are not logged.
• Tutor-performed actions for Cognitive Tutors are not fully supported; however, a workaround exists.
• DorminPicture does not provide any feedback message to the student when a step is out of order.
• If a graph contains a link that is not represented in the cognitive model, a No Model warning dialog no longer appears at author time when input matches that link.

Flash

• The component-specific methods “The Correct Method”, “The InCorrect Method”, and “The Reset Method” do not work when “Suppress Student Feedback” is turned on. The workaround is to use a new CommShell parameter, “MonitorLog”, which will receive tool_messages and tutor_messages as they are logged.
• In a Flash cognitive tutor, creating a start state no longer automatically generates working memory facts and templates.
• Flash components Jumble, Multiple Selection, and Media Multiple Selection are buggy. To use any of these components, download the CommComponents bundle from the CTAT 2.2 release and use these components with the 2.2 version of the CommShell component.
• The Flash component CommTextArea’s text turns from black to gray (instead of vice versa) when creating a start state.
• Flash widgets can’t be modified in “Set Start State” mode.
• CommCombobox does not work with some languages such as Japanese. The current workaround is to use HTML entities for these characters in these languages.
• Logging custom fields does not work from Flash using CommLoggingLibrary.

Both

• In graphs with “Suppress Student Feedback” enabled, success and error-feedback messages are not displayed, but they are logged. The feedback should not be logged, since it never appeared to the student.
• Current state (a node with bold text) in an unordered graph is incorrect for Jess tutors.
• The JavasrcInstaller, used to set up source documentation for Java functions in the Formula Wizard, does not extract sources on the Mac. To do this manually, see Installing the Formula Wizard.
• Very large behavior graphs can take a while to open in CTAT.
• The enforceDone attribute of a behavior graph cannot be set from the CTAT user interface; it can only be set in the behavior graph XML using a text editor.