The utility of a graphical representation of discourse structure in spoken dialogue systems

In this paper we explore the utility of the Navigation Map (NM), a graphical representation of the discourse structure. We run a user study to investigate if users perceive the NM as helpful in a tutoring spoken dialogue system. From the users' perspective, our results show that the NM presence allows them to better identify and follow the tutoring plan and to better integrate the instruction. It was also easier for users to concentrate and to learn from the system if the NM was present. Our preliminary analysis on objective metrics further strengthens these findings. © 2007 Association for Computational Linguistics