The use of an integrated tool to support teaching and learning in artificial Intelligence

Teaching of knowledge-intensive AI is particularly hard as the process of how knowledge is acquired is difficult to grasp without practical experience. Acquiring and using knowledge about actions, events, processes is especially difficult because of the temporal nature of the subject matter. In this paper we report on a tool called GIPO that has been used for teaching AI students the areas of knowledge acquisition, knowledge engineering, automated planning and machine learning. We give a short walkthrough of some of GIPO’s functions, indicating some of the learning opportunities offered. We then compare GIPO with other interfaces used in the computing curriculum. We argue that using a high level integrated tool such as GIPO for supporting teaching and learning improves the students’ learning experience, and helps integrate the theory and practice in a range of AI and related subject areas