Generating Effective Tutorial Descriptions That Use Examples
Abstract
Descriptions of complex concepts often use examples for illustrating various points. This paper discusses the issues that arise in generating complex descriptions in tutorial contexts. Although some tutorial systems have used examples in explanations, they have rarely been considered as an integral part of the complete explanation - they have been considered as supportive devices - and are usually inserted in the explanations without any representation in the system of how the examples relate to, and complement the textual explanations that accompany the examples. This can lead to presentations that are at best, weakly coherent, and at worst, confusing and misleading for the learner. Many studies have shown that user comprehension is enhanced significantly if examples are presented in a way that takes into account various features of the accompanying explanation. There is also implicit information present in certain aspects of the presentation, such as the order in which the examples are presented - the system should understand such criteria and structure its presentation appropriately. In this paper, we consider the generation of examples as an integral part of the overall process of generation, resulting in examples and text that are smoothly integrated and complement each other. We address the requirements of a system capable of this, and present a framework in which it is possible to generate examples as an integral part of a description. We then show how techniques developed in Natural Language Generation can be used to build such a framework.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1992
- Accession Number
- ADA249138
Entities
People
- Cecile L. Paris
- Vibhu O. Mittal
Organizations
- University of Southern California