Within the field of human-computer interaction there has long been interest in developing adaptive automated instruction software to facilitate learning of application programs. This software would monitor a computer user's behavior while he or she uses the application program, and then provide optimized and personalized instruction to help the user become more skilled with the application. This form of instruction could be performed by a stand-alone tutoring application, or it could be carried out by special routines built into the application program itself (as with the Microsoft Office Assistant discussed below). Note that the history of adaptive learning approaches to education in general, some of which is summarized in the Wikipedia articles on spaced repetition and electronic learnin