Adaptive hypermedia for education and training

Adaptive hypermedia (AH) is an alternative to the traditional, one-size-fits-all approach in the development of hypermedia systems. AH systems build a model of the goals, preferences, and knowledge of each individual user; this model is used throughout the interaction with the user to adapt to the needs of that particular user (Brusilovsky, 1996b). For example, a student in an adaptive educational hypermedia system will be given a presentation that is adapted specifically to his or her knowledge of the subject (De Bra & Calvi, 1998; Hothi, Hall, & Sly, 2000) as well as a suggested set of the most relevant links to proceed further (Brusilovsky, Eklund, & Schwarz, 1998; Kavcic, 2004). An adaptive electronic encyclopedia will personalize the content of an article to augment the user's existing knowledge and interests (Bontcheva & Wilks, 2005; Milosavljevic, 1997). A museum guide will adapt the presentation about every visited object to the user's individual path through the museum (Oberlander et al., 1998; Stock et al., 2007). Adaptive hypermedia belongs to the class of user-adaptive systems (Schneider-Hufschmidt, Kühme, & Malinowski, 1993). A distinctive feature of an adaptive system is an explicit user model that represents user knowledge, goals, and interests, as well as other features that enable the system to adapt to different users with their own specific set of goals. An adaptive system collects data for the user model from various sources that can include implicitly observing user interaction and explicitly requesting direct input from the user. The user model is applied to provide an adaptation effect, that is, tailor interaction to different users in the same context. In different kinds of adaptive systems, adaptation effects could vary greatly. In AH systems, it is limited to three major adaptation technologies: adaptive content selection, adaptive navigation support, and adaptive presentation. The first of these three technologies comes from the fields of adaptive information retrieval (IR) and intelligent tutoring systems (ITS). When the user searches for information, the system adaptively selects and prioritizes the most relevant items (Brajnik, Guida, & Tasso, 1987; Brusilovsky, 1992b)

User-centred design of flexible hypermedia for a mobile guide: Reflections on the hyperaudio experience

A user-centred design approach involves end-users from the very beginning. Considering users at the early stages compels designers to think in terms of utility and usability and helps develop the system on what is actually needed. This paper discusses the case of HyperAudio, a context-sensitive adaptive and mobile guide to museums developed in the late 90s. User requirements were collected via a survey to understand visitors’ profiles and visit styles in Natural Science museums. The knowledge acquired supported the specification of system requirements, helping defining user model, data structure and adaptive behaviour of the system. User requirements guided the design decisions on what could be implemented by using simple adaptable triggers and what instead needed more sophisticated adaptive techniques, a fundamental choice when all the computation must be done on a PDA. Graphical and interactive environments for developing and testing complex adaptive systems are discussed as a further step towards an iterative design that considers the user interaction a central point. The paper discusses how such an environment allows designers and developers to experiment with different system’s behaviours and to widely test it under realistic conditions by simulation of the actual context evolving over time. The understanding gained in HyperAudio is then considered in the perspective of the developments that followed that first experience: our findings seem still valid despite the passed time

A vignette model for distributed teaching and learning

Computer software and telecommunication technologies are being assimilated into the education sector. At a slower pace, educational methodologies have been evolving and gradually adopted by educators. The widespread and rapid assimilation of technology may be outstripping the uptake of better pedagogical strategies. Non‐pedagogical development of content could lead to the development of legacy systems that constrain future developments. Problems have arisen with computer‐based learning (CBL) materials, such as the lack of uptake of monolithic programmes that cannot be easily changed to keep pace with natural progress or the different requirements of different teachers and institutions. Also, hypertext/hypermedia learning environments have limitations in that following predefined paths is no more interactive than page turning. These considerations require a flexible and dynamic approach for the benefit of both the teacher and student. Courses may be constructed from vignettes to meet a desired purpose and to avoid the problems of adoption for the reasons that programmes cannot easily be changed or are not designed to meet particular needs. Vignettes are small, first‐principle, first‐person, heuristic activities (which are mimetic) from which courses can be constructed Vignettes use an object‐orientated approach to the development of computer‐based learning materials. Vignettes are objects that can be manipulated via a property sheet, which enables changing the object's inherent character or behaviour. A vignette object can interact with other vignette objects to create more complex educational interactions or models. The vignette approach leads to a development concept that is horizontally distributed across disciplines rather than vertically limited to single subjects

A model-based approach to hypermedia design.

This paper introduces the MESH approach to hypermedia design, which combines established entity-relationship and object-oriented abstractions with proprietary concepts into a formal hypermedia data model. Uniform layout and link typing specifications can be attributed and inherited in a static node typing hierarchy, whereas both nodes and links can be submitted dynamically to multiple complementary classifications. In addition, the data model's support for a context-based navigation paradigm, as well as a platform-independent implementation framework, are briefly discussed.Data; Model; Specifications; Classification;

MESH: an object-oriented approach to hypermedia modeling and navigation.

This paper introduces the MESH approach to hypermedia modeling and navigation, which aims at relieving the typical drawbacks of poor maintainability and user disorientation. The framework builds upon two fundamental concepts. The data model combines established entity-relationship and object-oriented abstractions with proprietary concepts into a formal hypermedia data model. Uniform layout and link typing specifications can be attributed and inherited in a static node typing hierarchy, whereas both nodes and links can be submitted dynamically to multiple complementary classifications. In the context-based navigation paradigm, conventional navigation along static links is complemented by run-time generated guided tours, which are derived dynamically from the context of a user's information requirements. The result is a two-dimensional navigation paradigm, which reconciles complete navigational freedom and flexibility with a measure of linear guidance. These specifications are captured in a high-level, platform independent implementation framework.Data; Model; Specifications; Classification; Information; Requirements;

Factors shaping the evolution of electronic documentation systems

The main goal is to prepare the space station technical and managerial structure for likely changes in the creation, capture, transfer, and utilization of knowledge. By anticipating advances, the design of Space Station Project (SSP) information systems can be tailored to facilitate a progression of increasingly sophisticated strategies as the space station evolves. Future generations of advanced information systems will use increases in power to deliver environmentally meaningful, contextually targeted, interconnected data (knowledge). The concept of a Knowledge Base Management System is emerging when the problem is focused on how information systems can perform such a conversion of raw data. Such a system would include traditional management functions for large space databases. Added artificial intelligence features might encompass co-existing knowledge representation schemes; effective control structures for deductive, plausible, and inductive reasoning; means for knowledge acquisition, refinement, and validation; explanation facilities; and dynamic human intervention. The major areas covered include: alternative knowledge representation approaches; advanced user interface capabilities; computer-supported cooperative work; the evolution of information system hardware; standardization, compatibility, and connectivity; and organizational impacts of information intensive environments

Abstracted navigational actions for improved hypermedia navigation and maintainance.

This paper discusses the MESH framework, which proposes a fully object-oriented approach to hypermedia. Object-oriented abstractions are not only applied to the conceptual data model, but also to the navigation paradigm. This results in the concept of context-based navigation, which reduces the end user's disorientation problem by means of dynamically generated, context-sensitive guided tours. Moreover, maintainability is greatly improved, as both nodes and links are defined as instances of abstract classes. I this way, single links and entire guided tours are anchored on type level as abstract navigational actions, which are independent of the actual link instances.Marketing; Data; Model;

A model for hypermedia learning environments based on electronic books

Designers of hypermedia learning environments could take advantage of a theoretical scheme which takes into account various kinds of learning activities and solves some of the problems associated with them. In this paper, we present a model which inherits a number of characteristics from hypermedia and electronic books. It can provide designers with the tools for creating hypermedia learning systems, by allowing the elements and functions involved in the definition of a specific application to be formally represented A practical example, CESAR, a hypermedia learning environment for hearing‐impaired children, is presented, and some conclusions derived from the use of the model are also shown

Unifying Distributed Processing and Open Hypertext through a Heterogeneous Communication Model

A successful distributed open hypermedia system can be characterised by a scaleable architecture which is inherently distributed. While the architects of distributed hypermedia systems have addressed the issues of providing and retrieving distributed resources, they have often neglected to design systems with the inherent capability to exploit the distributed processing of this information. The research presented in this paper describes the construction and use of an open hypermedia system concerned equally with both of these facets

Encapsulation and information hiding as the keys to maintainable and reusable hypermedia applications.

This paper presents a solution to the maintenance problem in hypermedia by applying object-oriented techniques to both the hypermedia data model and the hypermedia system's actual implementation. First, the primary concepts of the 'MESH' (Maintainable, End user friendly, Structured Hypermedia) approach are discussed briefly. These consist of a conceptual data model, a navigation paradigm and an implementation framework. Thereafter, it is shown how the object-oriented concepts of encapsulation and information hiding result in a hypermedia system consisting of self-contained, independently coded nodes. Intra node maintenance is separated entirely from inter node maintenance: the hyperbase's link structure can be updated without affecting node content, whereas an individual node's multimedia content can be reorganized without necessitating updates to links or link anchors.Applications; Information; Data; Model; Structure;