Advising Exercise

1. Separate into your Tutorial Groups (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)

2. The instructor will distribute Advising Situation Worksheets, one to each group.

3. Examine the Advising Situation Worksheet you have been given.  You are going to collect good advice on your assigned topic:

    a. Where to go for a holiday
    b. What career to pursue
    c.  How to accumulate wealth
    d. How to become more stylish and better looking
    e. How to improve personal fitness
    f. How to become more popular
    g. Where to live in the US
    h. How to improve your mind.

4. Appoint an "expert."  (This person doesn't really have to be an expert, but it's fun to imagine that one is!); also appoint a scribe to write things down on the Advising Situation Worksheet.

5. The rest of the group interviews the expert as Knowledge Engineers and compiles two sets of information:

    a. A set of parameters that describe any problem in the topic area
        i. For instance, in terms of pursuing a holiday it might make sense to find out just how much money someone seeking this advice might have.    
        ii. On the other hand, the number of vowels in the advice-seekers surname might not be very important.
    b. A set of rules in the form of "IF...THEN..." that provide the advice:
        i. For example, in how to become more popular, a reasonable rule might be "If you are already very popular, just keep doing what you are doing"
        ii. The IF part relates to the parameters and the THEN part relates to the advice.

6. When the instructor tells you, select one person who is NOT the expert to visit the NEXT HIGHER NUMBERED GROUP as an advice seeker.  The instructor will provide the advice seeker with an Advising Session Worksheet.  The advice seeker will go to the next higher numbered group and give the Advising Session Worksheet to that group's expert.

7. The Expert will then conduct an interview and provide advice.

8. The Instructor will debrief the class and talk about advising further.

Summary

Roles: Expert, Knowledge Engineer, Scribe, Advice Seeker.

Worksheets: Advising Situation, Advising Session

Goal: To understand the role of information in advice and how expert systems work.

Time:     10 min.   Introductory lecture
               5 min     Group establishment
               15 min   Knowledge engineering
               5 min     Advising setup
               10 min    Advice-giving
               5 min      Instructor debriefing
            50 min

Sample Advising Situation Worksheet
Sample Advising Session Worksheet