Educational Aspects of Identification Software user Interfaces

Abstract

Apparently many users of identification techniques learn the topic only via use of commercial software. This may or may not include the software manual. This means that the software user interface -graphical or not -plays a major role in teaching identification theory and methodology to large number of users. This contribution deals with such educational / pedagogical aspects software user interfaces. In particular we focus on issues to hide certain design variables as defaults, and what can be done in case no defaults are obvious. Other questions are how to force the user to appreciate and understand the quality of an identified model, and to know what optional design choices and methods that are available, in particular if there is no Graphical User Interface (GUI).

ITSIE: An Interactive Software Tool for System Identification Education

“…System identification is a field rich in visual content that can be represented intuitively and geometrically [Ljung, 2003]. Furthermore, system identification methodologies in general involve a series of sequential yet integrated stages (experimental design, model structure selection, parameter estimation, and validation) where the outcome of one stage will have a profound effect on the others.…”