With apologies for multiple postings ...



                          CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

        CIRCLE Summer School on Intelligent Tutoring Systems
    to be held at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
                      Tuesday, June 17 - Saturday, June 21

* An intensive, five-day course focused on the development of model-tracing
   tutors.
* The course will provide conceptual background knowledge on intelligent
   tutoring systems as well as considerable hands-on experience.
* Participation is free!
* The course will immediately preceed UM '03, the 9th International Conference
   on User Modeling - see http://www2.sis.pitt.edu/~um2003/  which is held also
   in the Pittsburgh area.
* We will consider applications starting April 15. Application
deadline: May 16.


SUMMER SCHOOL CONTENT

The CIRCLE research center in Pittsburgh, PA (see
http://www/pitt.edu/~circle) is sponsoring an intensive 1-week summer
school on building intelligent tutoring systems. The summer school
will provide some amount of conceptual background material on the
major types of intelligent tutoring systems. The major focus of the
summer school will be on the process of building a model tracing
tutor, a particular type of intelligent tutoring system that is
appropriate for teaching complex, multi-step problem solving skills.
Lectures and hands-on sessions will focus on the major activities
involved in developing such a tutor.


FORMAT

The summer school will last for five days. Each day will include
lectures, discussion sessions, a reading assignment, and laboratory
sessions where the participants will either practice tutor
development in a domain we provide, or develop or extend their own
tutoring system. Activities will involve both analyses of student
and/or tutor behavior and software development. The participants will
use the Cognitive Tutor Authoring Tools being developed at Carnegie
Mellon University and Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Students will
also be given a short list of readings to complete before arriving.
On the last day, student teams will present their accomplishments to
the rest of the participants, followed by a "graduation" party.


COURSE INSTRUCTORS

The course instructors will be:

Dr. Kurt VanLehn
Learning Research and Development Center
University of Pittsburgh

Dr. Kenneth R. Koedinger
Human-Computer Interaction Institute
Carnegie Mellon University

Dr. Neil T. Heffernan
Computer Science Dept.
Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Dr. Vincent Aleven
Human-Computer Interaction Institute
Carnegie Mellon University

All instructors have considerable experience in research and
development in intelligent tutoring systems. The same team taught the
Circle 2002 summer school. All have taught similar material as
semester-long courses. They look forward to the more intensive,
hands-on context of a summer school.


REQUIRED BACKGROUND

The course is intended for anyone with the appropriate computational
background and educational zeal to actually build an intelligent
tutoring system. This could include seasoned edutech researchers,
advanced graduate students, computationally sophisticated teachers
and commercial or military instructional developers.


APPLICATIONS

Applicants should send a curriculum vitae and a brief letter
explaining why they are interested in attending and indicating any
relevant experience (e.g., programming, cognitive task analysis,
cognitive modeling) that might not be evident on the vita. Email
applications are encouraged. Please send applications to:

Email: [log in to unmask]

Surface mail:
Cindy Niznik, rm. 822
Learning Research and Development Center
University of Pittsburgh
3939 O'Hara St.
Pittsburgh, PA 15260 USA


IMPORTANT DATES

We will consider applications as they come in, starting April 15. We
will make every effort to respond quickly (i.e., within 10 working
days). The deadline for applications is May 16, 2002. Admission
decisions will be made by May 23, 2002 - earlier for earlier
applications, as indicated above.


COSTS

This year, there will be no charge for attending the CIRCLE summer
school. CIRCLE is supported by NSF, and the summer school is part of
its effort to disseminate its research and technology. Although
participants will be responsible for paying for their own travel,
meals and lodging, participants with financial hardships may apply to
CIRCLE for financial support. Academic credit is not available,
although participants will receive a certificate verifying their
participation.