Andes: A Coached Problem Solving Environment for Physics

Andes is an Intelligent Tutoring System for introductory college physics. The fundamental principles underlying the design of Andes are: (1) encourage the student to construct new knowledge by providing hints that require them to derive most of the solution on their own, (2) facilitate transfer from the system by making the interface as much like a piece of paper as possible, (3) give immediate feedback after each action to maximize the opportunities for learning and minimize the amount of time spent going down wrong paths, and (4) give the student flexibility in the order in which actions are performed, and allow them to skip steps when appropriate. This paper gives an overview of Andes, focusing on the overall architecture and the student’s experience using the system.