Effects of a Dashboard for an Intelligent Tutoring System on Teacher Knowledge, Lesson Plans and Class Sessions

Even though Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) have been shown to help students learn, little research has investigated how a dashboard could help teachers help their students. In this paper, we explore how a dashboard prototype designed for an ITS affects teachers’ knowledge about their students, their classroom lesson plans and class sessions. We conducted a quasi-experimental classroom study with 5 middle school teachers and 8 classes. We found that the dashboard influences what teachers know about their students, which in turn influences the lesson plans they prepare, which then guides what teachers cover in a class session. We believe this is the first study that explores how a dashboard for an ITS affects teacher’s knowledge, decision-making and actions in the classroom.