Book review: Artificial Intelligence and Tutoring Systems by Etienne Wenger (Morgan Kaufman 1987)

A number of publications have appeared recently to fill in the time gap since the first major compendium of intelligent tutoring systems was published in 1982 (Intelligent Tutoring Systems by Sleeman and Brown). These have included books by Clancey (Knowledge-based Tutoring: The GUIDON System), by Lawler and Yazdani (Artificial Intelligence and Education) and by Kearsley (Artificial Intelligence and Instruction: Applications and Methods), as well as an article in the Annual Review of Computer Science by Clancey on qualitative student models. However, each of these works has been either an edited collection of writings by a number of authors on their various systems, or has focused on one system or one primary aspect of intelligent tutoring systems. The book by Wenger is unique in that it offers an overview of the entire field by a single author, thereby providing a perspective and a coherence lacking in other works.