Abstract: This paper describes salient problems encountered by students enrolled in a course on the use of expert system shells in business that was offered at the University of Nevada-Reno. The paper identifies the major problems encountered by students as being: A) The learning of new programming concepts; B) “Freeing” the mind from procedural thinking; C) Becoming clear about the use of certainty factors; D) Adapting to incremental design; E) The selection of an appropriate problem; F) Thinking like an expert; G) Lack of models and limitations of tutorials; H) Tracing and debugging. These problems can be addressed by instructors in various ways. Several instructor-oriented recommendations are made to address these problems, although simply being aware of some of the problems students in these courses will face will be of assistance to instructors preparing class lectures and materials.

Keywords: Expert systems, Artificial intelligence, Computer information science, Student learning

Download this article: JISEv2n1p18.pdf

Recommended Citation: Grupe, F. H. (1989). Student Learning Problems in a Course on Expert System Shells. Journal of Information Systems Education, 2(1), 18-22.