Basics of Authoring TuTalk Dialogues

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Basics of Authoring TuTalk Dialogues

• Pamela Jordan
• University of Pittsburgh
• Learning Research and Development Center

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Agenda

• Overview of authoring
• Basic authoring (GUI sc)
• Authoring multi-part responses (GUI sc)
• Next steps for projects

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What do you have to do to create a TuTalk
dialogue agent?

• Write domain content in form of natural language
  dialogue turns (e.g. elicit or tell)
• Write an ideal dialogue on a topic
• Write expected short answer student responses
  (correct, not correct)
• Write subdialogues for expected student responses
  that are
• Partially correct/incomplete
• Partially incorrect
• Overly vague
• Overly specific
• Correct but premature

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Authoring definitions tutoring perspective

• A collection of dialogues that make up an agent
  is called a script/scenario
• A dialogue covers a goal (aka topic)
• One goal/topic can have alternative dialogues an
  instance of a dialogue for a goal is called a
  template in the authoring tool
• A dialogue has one or more tutor turns called an
  initiation
• An initiation can have an expected student
  response
• An initiation response, or initiation with no
  expected response is called a step
• A set of alternative phrasings for an initiation
  or response is called a concept

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Examples of concepts (abstract)

• ask_share_appetizer
• So, should we share an appetizer?
• Id like to share an appetizer. What looks
  good to you?
• skip_appetizer
• I dont want an appetizer
• Lets skip the appetizer

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Example template for a dialogue covering a goal
(abstract)
Goal name
Goal select-appetizer step enthuse_about_appeti
zers step ask_share_appetizer
agree_to_share_appetizer skip_appetizer
abort, ask-soup unknown abort,
loose-temper step agree-on-appetizer
Concept to realize or recognize
initiation
possible responses
Response action push to subdialogue for this goal
Push to subdialogue for this goal
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Agenda

• Overview of authoring
• Basic authoring (GUI sc)
• Authoring multi-part responses (GUI sc)
• Next steps for projects

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Authoring interface
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Alternatives to authoring interface

• Why? not all features are available in authoring
  interface
• Write xml directly (see documentation and dtd at
  http//andes3.lrdc.pitt.edu/TuTalk/TuTalk.pdf
• Write in special shorthand format called sc that
  expands to xml

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What is xml?

• html is a specialized version of xml
• It is like highlighting a piece of text and
  annotating that segment with extra information
• Xml is made up of elements and each element can
  have its own attribute
• Ex of elements enthuse_about_appetizers becomes
• ltstepgt
• ltinitiationgtenthuse_about_appetizerslt
  /initiationgt
• lt/stepgt
• Ex of attribute ltstep optionaloncegt lt/stepgt

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What is sc?

• Uses a short-hand for the xml elements and
  attributes
• Allows phrases to be defined inline within steps
  instead of offset with concept labels
• Automatically moves inline phrases into concepts
  when translates to xml
• Automatically generated concept labels are
  concatenations of first words of phrase (appends
  numbers if not a unique label)

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Example sc script
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Basic sc syntax

• say or initiation, followed by a quoted string or
  a concept name, followed by optional attributes.
• if or response, followed by a quoted string or a
  concept name, followed by optional attributes.
• else or otherwise or unanticipated, indicating
  XMLs unanticipated-response, followed by
  optional attributes.
• do or subgoal, followed by a goal name.
• do and say can also be used as attributes, for
  XMLs push and say atributes.

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Uploading and testing sc
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Importing xml into the authoring tool
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Demo
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Agenda

• Overview of authoring
• Basic authoring (GUI sc)
• Authoring multi-part responses (GUI sc)
• Next steps for projects

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Multi-part responses

• Gives student credit for partial responses and
  seeks just what is missing
• Example
• T What are the forces on a set of keys on top of
  a table?
• S gravity
• T Almost. There is another force. The keys
  arent moving so the net force must be zero.
  What force balances out the force due to gravity?
• S normal force

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Multi-part responses
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Multi-part responses in sc

• g salad-and-soup
• say Do you want soup and salad? answer
  soup-or-not salad-or-not
• if soup-or-not do-nomatch what-about-soup
• if salad-or-not do-nomatch what-about-salad
• else say You are not listening to me!

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Next steps

• Hands-on task try the authoring interface and
  the sc scripting language
• Do exercise 3.3 in TuTalk Authoring Interface
  Users Guide (can do sections 3.1 and 3.2 first
  if you prefer)
• For help with sc, see section 3, in particular
  3.3.1, of TuTalk dialogue system design
  specification (http//andes3.lrdc.pitt.edu/TuTalk/
  TuTalk.pdf)
• Project tasks
• Locate a corpus or collect sample dialogues ()