Type-2 Fuzzy Logic based Systems for Adaptive Learning and Teaching within Intelligent E-Learning Environments

The recent years have witnessed an increased interest in e-learning platforms that incorporate adaptive learning and teaching systems that enable the creation of adaptive learning environments to suit individual student needs. The efficiency of these adaptive educational systems relies on the methodology used to accurately gather and examine information pertaining to the characteristics and needs of students and relies on the way that information is processed to form an adaptive learning context. The vast majority of existing adaptive educational systems do not learn from the users’ behaviours to create white-box models to handle the high level of uncertainty and that could be easily read and analysed by the lay user. The data generated from interactions, such as teacher–learner or learner–system interactions within asynchronous environments, provide great opportunities to realise more adaptive and intelligent e-learning platforms rather than propose prescribed pedagogy that depends on the idea of a few designers and experts. Another limitation of current adaptive educational systems is that most of the existing systems ignore gauging the students' engagements levels and mapping them to suitable delivery needs which match the students' knowledge and preferred learning styles. It is necessary to estimate the degree of students’ engagement with the course contents. Such feedback is highly important and useful for assessing the teaching quality and adjusting the teaching delivery in small and large-scale online learning platforms. Furthermore, most of the current adaptive educational systems are used within asynchronous e-learning contexts as self-paced e-learning products in which learners can study in their own time and at their own speed, totally ignorant of synchronous e-learning settings of teacher-led delivery of the learning material over a communication tool in real time. This thesis presents novel theoretical and practical architectures based on computationally lightweight T2FLSs for lifelong learning and adaptation of learners’ and teachers’ behaviours in small- and large-scale asynchronous and synchronous e-learning platforms. In small-scale asynchronous and synchronous e-learning platforms, the presented architecture augments an engagement estimate system using a noncontact, low-cost, and multiuser support 3D sensor Kinect (v2). This is able to capture reliable features including head pose direction and hybrid features of facial expression to enable convenient and robust estimation of engagement in small-scale online and onsite learning in an unconstrained and natural environment in which users are allowed to act freely and move without restrictions. We will present unique real-world experiments in large and small-scale e-learning platforms carried out by 1,916 users from King Abdul-Aziz and Essex universities in Saudi Arabia and the UK over the course of teaching Excel and PowerPoint in which the type 2 system is learnt and adapted to student and teacher behaviour. The type-2 fuzzy system will be subjected to extended and varied knowledge, engagement, needs, and a high level of uncertainty variation in e-learning environments outperforming the type 1 fuzzy system and non-adaptive version of the system by producing better performance in terms of improved learning, completion rates, and better user engagements

A fog-based hybrid intelligent system for energy saving in smart buildings

In recent years, the widespread diffusion of pervasive sensing devices and the increasing need for reducing energy consumption have encouraged research in the energy-aware management of smart environments. Following this direction, this paper proposes a hybrid intelligent system which exploits a fog-based architecture to achieve energy efficiency in smart buildings. Our proposal combines reactive intelligence, for quick adaptation to the ever-changing environment, and deliberative intelligence, for performing complex learning and optimization. Such hybrid nature allows our system to be adaptive, by reacting in real time to relevant events occurring in the environment and, at the same time, to constantly improve its performance by learning users’ needs. The effectiveness of our approach is validated in the application scenario of a smart home by extensive experiments on real sensor traces. Experimental results show that our system achieves substantial energy savings in the management of a smart environment, whilst satisfying users’ needs and preferences

A zSlices-based general type-2 fuzzy logic system for users-centric adaptive learning in large-scale e-learning platforms

Sophisticated educational technologies are evolving rapidly, and online courses are becoming more easily available, generating interest in innovating lightweight data-driven adaptive approaches that foster responsive teaching and improving the overall learning experience. However, in most existing adaptive educational systems, the black-box modeling of learner and instructional models based on the views of a few designers or experts tended to drive the adaptation of learning content. However, different sources of uncertainty could affect these views, including how accurately the proposed adaptive educational methods actually assess student responses and the corresponding uncertainties associated with how students receive and comprehend the resulting instruction. E-learning environments contain high levels of linguistic uncertainties, whereby students can interpret and act on the same terms, words, or methods (e.g., course difficulty, length of study time, or preferred learning style) in various ways according to varying levels of motivation, pre-knowledge, cognition, and future plans. Thus, one adaptive instructional model does not fit the needs of all students. Basing the instruction model on determining learners’ interactions within the learning environment in interpretable and easily read white-box models is crucial for adapting the model to students’ needs and understanding how learning is realized. This paper presents a new zSlices-based type-2 fuzzy-logic-based system that can learn students’ preferred knowledge delivery needs based on their characteristics and current levels of knowledge to generate an adaptive learning environment. We have evaluated the proposed system’s efficiency through various large-scale, real-world experiments involving 1871 students from King Abdulaziz University. These experiments demonstrate the proposed zSlices type-2 fuzzy-logic-based system’s capability for handling linguistic uncertainties to produce better performance, particularly in terms of enhanced student performance and improved success rates compared with interval type-2 fuzzy logic, type-1 fuzzy systems, adaptive, instructor-led systems, and non-adaptive systems

Adaptatividade em ambientes virtuais: uma proposta para personalizar a aprendizagem em cursos híbridos de ensino superior

OTA, Marcos Andrei - Adaptatividade em ambientes virtuais: uma proposta para personalizar a aprendizagem em cursos híbridos de ensino superior 2018. 266 f. Tese de doutoramento (Doutorado em Ensino de Ciências e Matemática) – Universidade Cruzeiro do Sul, São Paulo, 2018. Co-orientação e estágio doutoral com Daniela Melaré Vieira Barros.No século XXI, mudanças no rumo da educação promovem o aparecimento de competências e desafios. Por meio de novas tecnologias, as instituições de ensino superior precisam moldar seus métodos de ensino para que auxiliem o aluno com um melhor currículo. Nesse contexto, a educação online surge para ampliar as possibilidades de aprendizagem do estudante, implementando ensino totalmente a distância ou no modelo híbrido, conhecido também por blended learning. Esta tese promove uma discussão acerca desse tipo de ensino, tendo como objetivo propor um modelo de ambiente virtual com estratégias adaptativas para personalizar a aprendizagem em cursos híbridos de ensino superior. O modelo foi submetido à validação de 179 estudantes de cursos das Engenharias, por meio de questionário, construído a partir de algumas dimensões para testar a aceitabilidade da proposta. Além disso, para o refinamento do modelo, 21 docentes teceram contribuições e percepções acerca dos desafios encontrados na elaboração dos materiais didáticos do curso CBL (Competency-based Learning) de Língua Portuguesa e de Matemática, concebido exclusivamente para subsidiar a avaliação da solução (testes e refinamento). Quanto aos procedimentos metodológicos, este estudo propõe uma abordagem qualitativa e quantitativa, utilizando a Metodologia de Desenvolvimento (Development Research), estruturado em três estudos: exploratório (Estudo 1 - Investigação Preliminar), que cuidou de uma revisão e mapeamento de literatura, assim como o acompanhamento do projeto piloto para avaliar um sistema adaptativo; desenvolvimento (Estudo 2 - Inserção Teórica), que analisou feedback do projeto piloto para desenvolver a solução a partir da fundamentação teórica e as tecnologias existentes, incluindo a proposição de conteúdo personalizado e atividades baseadas nos estilos de aprendizagem do ambiente virtual ; e empírico (Teste Empírico), que consistiu na adaptatividade aplicada no LMS e adição do desenho do curso CBL. Como resultados, o estudo 1 possibilitou entender como os alunos receberam o projeto piloto e quais eram seus perfis como estudantes, tendo como base a revisão e mapeamento de literatura realizados; o estudo 2 permitiu fazer a articulação entre o referencial teórico e o feedback do projeto piloto, levantando cinco categorias de melhorias para análise; e o estudo 3 implementou as melhorias e criou o curso CBL com as devidas estratégias adaptativas. Através de toda a investigação realizada, concluiu-se que o modelo de ambiente virtual proposto é adequado para apoiar a aprendizagem de alunos em cursos híbridos e a possibilidade de um plano de estudos personalizado confere ao estudante sanar ou diminuir suas dificuldades. Após todas as etapas relatadas, esperou-se reunir contribuições necessárias e suficientes para colaborar com o desenvolvimento do ensino no âmbito tratado, promovendo o crescimento do ensino da educação a distância para o ensino superior.In the 21st century, changes in the direction of education promote the emergence of skills and challenges. By using new technologies, higher education institutions need to shape their teaching methods to assist the student in the best curriculum. In this context, online education emerges to expand the possibilities of student learning, implementing fully distance learning or the hybrid model, also known as blended learning. This thesis promotes a discussion about this type of teaching, aiming to propose a virtual environment model with adaptive strategies to personalize learning in blended learning courses of higher education. The model was submitted to the validation of 179 students of engineering courses, through a questionnaire, constructed from some dimensions to test the acceptability of the proposal. In addition, to refine the model, 21 teachers made contributions and perceptions about the challenges encountered in the preparation of the CBL (Competency-based Learning) Portuguese and Mathematics course materials, designed exclusively to support the evaluation of the solution (tests and refinement). In the methodological procedures, this study proposes a qualitative and quantitative approach, using the development research as methodology, structured in three studies: exploratory (Study 1 - Preliminary Investigation), which took care of a literature review and mapping, as well as the follow-up of the pilot project to evaluate an adaptive system; development (Study 2 - Theoretical embedding), which analyzed feedback from the pilot project to develop the solution from the theoretical reference and existing technologies, including proposing customized content and activities based on the learning styles in virtual environment; and empirical (Empirical testing), which consisted in the adaptivity applied in the LMS and addition of the CBL course design. As a result, study 1 made it possible to understand how students received the pilot project and what their profiles were as students, based on literature review and mapping; study 2 allowed to articulate between the theoretical reference and feedback of the pilot project, raising five categories of improvements for analysis; and study 3 implemented the improvements and created the CBL course with the appropriate adaptive strategies. Throughout the research carried out, it was concluded that the proposed virtual environment model is adequate to support the learning of students in blended learning courses and the possibility of a personalized study plan allows the student to heal or reduce their difficulties. After all the steps reported, it was hoped to gather necessary and sufficient contributions to collaborate with the development of the education in the treated scope, promoting the growth of the education of the distance education in the higher education.info:eu-repo/semantics/draf