Intelligent Tutoring System Architecture Rebuilt: A Pattern Approach

An Architecture And The Problem Of Interdisciplinarity

Having its roots in the Greek term “arkitekton'' (αρχιτεκτων), an architect is etymologically spoken the “leader'' or “chief'' of the “builders''. The architecture, being related to the Latin term “architectura'', denotes something which is man-made. Traditionally, it is related with built environment, which means man-made surroundings, buildings, and the like. Nowadays, the term's meaning has been extended and is used in additional areas, e.g. mathematics, computer science, but also biology (e.g. architecture of cells). The core of today's usage of the term is that an architecture is a structure plan of something, which is either man-made or found in nature.

In the context of computer science, the notion of architecture is often related to the abstract structural description of the underlying software system. The architecture describes the fundamental structural organization of the system. An architecture pattern thus sketches established solutions regarding the development of software. Moreover, the architecture pattern usually provides structure but no details (Buschmann et. al., 1996). The notion of design patterns and architecture patterns has been proposed for the field of ITS early (e.g. Devedžić; 1999). Surprisingly, patterns still have not been taken up as a major method for systematic ITS development.