Expert Systems As a Classroom Tool for Thinking

The concept of an expert system--a set of rules automated in software to reason through a problem--is an excellent basis for teaching students to think clearly. The core of such an effort is describing--in simple rules--domain behavior. This step will force students to distinguish between fundamental information and unnecessary detail, severely testing their understanding of their subject. A logically incomplete set of rules will cause the system to crash; simplistic rules will produce simplistic conclusions. Lack of mastery of one's field is likely to become embarrassingly clear. Note that this exercise really does not even require a computer: try it on paper and ask fellow students to reason through the logic of your rules.

For detailed discussions and Prolog code, see Publications on Methodology


The Pedagogical Exercise
Design Step.................Comments
Select Problem Select a well-focused issue for analysis
Write queries The queries are the questions that the expert system (i.e., the computer) will ask you! This requires an understanding of data requirements, since you must have answers to these queries in order for the system to function.
Write rules Here is the key to the exercise: do you have sufficient domain knowledge to define the rules governing domain behavior. Trying to do this will rapidly expose areas of deficient knowledge, which is of course the point. At that point, you must do more research, or try a different method (e.g., case-based reasoning).
Write messages The messages are the responses that the computer will provide. The computer follows the logic of the rules that apply, given the responses entered to the queries, and outputs the appropriate canned answers. You didn't really suppose that the computer was doing the thinking, did you? All an expert system does is represent the developer's (i.e., your) expertise.


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