CTAT 2.7 Release Notes

What's New in CTAT 2.7

General Changes

• Insert a step in any location of a behavior graph. In the context menu for any step, insert a step above or below the current step by selecting either Insert a Blank State in Link (Above) or Insert a Blank State in Link (Below).
• Demonstrate the contents of an existing link. In the context menu for any step, (re-)demonstrate the contents of a step by selecting Demonstrate this Link. CTAT will enter a temporary demonstrate mode where you can interact with the student interface to replace the contents of the selected step.
• Beta version of the Link Inspector. Click a step in a behavior graph and its contents are displayed in a single panel, the Link Inspector. Display more than one Link Inspector by selecting Windows > Show Window > Link Inspector (Beta).
• New CTAT formulas for expression matching. ...?
• Changed the behavior for when an out-of-order message (eg, "Instead of the step you are working on, please work on the highlighted step.") is displayed in an example-tracing tutor. In CTAT 2.6.1, an out-of-order message is displayed when any input is entered out of order, regardless of whether the input is correct or incorrect, or the student entered input in a widget that is not modeled in the graph. In CTAT 2.7, the behavior is more fine-grained: 1) if the widget matches a valid link in the graph but the input doesn't, the attempt is just marked as incorrect; 2) if the widget matches an out-of-order link (whether input matches or not), an out-of-order message is shown; 3) if the widget fails to match even an out-of-order link, the attempt is just marked as incorrect.
• Variable table for each interpretation of an example-tracing tutor. The set of variables which can be used in formulas in expression-matching steps of an example-tracing tutor are now distinct for each interpretation.

General Bug Fixes

• Deleting a group that is selected in the Group Editor no longer causes exceptions to be thrown, and it no longer akes a long time for the group to be deleted from the graph.
• Very large behavior graphs now open faster in CTAT.

Flash Upgrades/Changes

• New components: CommNumberBar, CommImage
• Tab order support.

Flash Bug Fixes

Known Issues

Java

• NetBeans 6.7.1: class files are deleted if all jar files required for examples are not specified. Workaround is to add all JAR files required by the examples as described here.
• Jess tutor-performed actions are not logged (CTAT2222).
• 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.
• 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

• CommNumberBar: Can't set start state via demonstration (CTAT2264)
• CommNumberBar: Can't set CommTextArea or CommTextInput start state text if number bar is the next component in the tab order (CTAT2260)
• CommNumberBar: small steps sometimes have large tickmarks (CTAT2272)
• CommNumberBar does not behave the same when it is connected to the tutoring service vs. the Behavior Recorder for Flash (CTAT2278).
• 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 solution 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 for some components.
• 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.
• 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 Flash and Java

• Inconsistent behavior when clicking on a state (CTAT2249).
• Can't demonstrate a link into a state added below a link (CTAT2257). Workaround is to save and reload the behavior graph.
• Tutor doesn't reconnect to the tutoring service if the same session ID is used (CTAT2199)
• Docked windows sometimes aren't loaded on Mac (CTAT2198)
• Demonstrating a step in an unordered graph that matches an existing step does no create a new link in the graph (CTAT2210). The workaround is to temporarily change the graph to "ordered" to demonstrate the step.
• 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 (CTAT1927).
• 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.
• 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.