Intelligent tutoring systems: a systematic review of characteristics, applications, and evaluation methods

With the rapid growth of technology, computer learning has become increasingly integrated with artificial intelligence techniques in order to develop more personalized educational systems. These systems are known as Intelligent Tutoring systems (ITSs). This paper focused on the variant characteristics of ITSs developed across different educational fields. The original studies from 2007 to 2017 were extracted from the PubMed, ProQuest, Scopus, Google scholar, Embase, Cochrane, and Web of Science databases. Finally, 53 papers were included in the study based on inclusion criteria. The educational fields in the ITSs were mainly computer sciences (37.73%). Action-condition rule-based reasoning, data mining, and Bayesian network with 33.96%, 22.64%, and 20.75% frequency respectively, were the most frequent artificial intelligent techniques applied in the ITSs. These techniques enable ITSs to deliver adaptive guidance and instruction, evaluate learners, define and update the learner’s model, and classify or cluster learners. Specifically, the performance of the system, learner’s performance, and experiences were used for evaluation of ITSs. Most ITSs were designed for web user interfaces. Although these systems could facilitate reasoning in the learning process, these systems have rarely been applied in experimental courses including problem-solving, decision-making in physics, chemistry, and clinical fields. Due to the important role of a cell phone in facilitating personalized learning and given the low rate of using mobile-based ITSs, this study has recommended the development and evaluation of mobile-based ITSs.