Student Tips |Teacher Tips

ES-Builder is quite easy to use with no prior training, but there are some things you can do to make your expert Systems work just a little better.

Here are some simple tips for creating Expert Systems using ES-Builder:

For Students:

  1. Don’t use questions for attributes. Finishing sentences is much more user-friendly and the rules read much better.

    Instead of saying:

    • What size is the box?
      • Big
      • Small.

    Say:

    • The box is...
      • Big
      • Small
  2. Make a separate folder for each expert system and save all files for that system to that folder.
  3. Save all your picture files in the same folder as you .tree file and keep them there. It makes sure that expert systems created with this software are fully transportable between systems. This is particularly important when publishing to the internet.
  4. When using ES-Builder, make use of the tick button on the toolbar to check that you have a valid tree before you export it to a web site.

For Teachers:

  1. Have your students submit their expert systems projects to you electronically. This way you can save on all that paper. Exporting the expert system to HTML creates a project that fits in one folder, on a floppy or CD-R. Having the projects presented this way offers a number of benefits.
     
    • easier to mark, because web sites are structured fo easy navigation.
    • all required data in the same place.
    • much less printing. Think of that student who prints everything out just to find a mistake and repeat the printing process all over again
    • the web site format can be extended to improve the research component of expert system projects and allow such things as including hyperlinks to further information in conclusion notes.
       
  2. Set your projects to be diagnostic expert systems, rather than classification exercises. This results in a more challenging assessment exercise. It also strengthens the need for a sound research component to the project which assists in providing a discriminating criteria for separating students.
     
    • Instead of asking “What bird is that?” or “What flag is that?”, ask “What is my problem?” and then give a solution in the conclusion notes. eg “My pot-plant is looking sick, what do I do?”.
       
  3. Read the Student Tips in detail.
  4. Check out the Resources page