Managing evolution and change in web-based teaching and learning environments

The state of the art in information technology and educational technologies is evolving constantly. Courses taught are subject to constant change from organisational and subject-specific reasons. Evolution and change affect educators and developers of computer-based teaching and learning environments alike – both often being unprepared to respond effectively. A large number of educational systems are designed and developed without change and evolution in mind. We will present our approach to the design and maintenance of these systems in rapidly evolving environments and illustrate the consequences of evolution and change for these systems and for the educators and developers responsible for their implementation and deployment. We discuss various factors of change, illustrated by a Web-based virtual course, with the objective of raising an awareness of this issue of evolution and change in computer-supported teaching and learning environments. This discussion leads towards the establishment of a development and management framework for teaching and learning systems

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)

Agents for Distributed Multimedia Information Management

This paper discusses the role of agents in a distributed multimedia information system (DMIS) engineered according to the principles of open hypermedia. It is based on the new generation of Microcosm, an open hypermedia system developed by the Multimedia Research Group at the University of Southampton. Microcosm provides a framework for supporting the three major roles of agents within open information systems: resource discovery, information integrity and navigation assistance. We present Microcosm and its agents, and discuss our current research in applying agent technology in this framework

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

Is adaptation of e-advertising the way forward?

E-advertising is a multi-billion dollar industry that has shown exponential growth in the last few years. However, although the number of users accessing the Internet increases, users don’t respond positively to adverts. Adaptive e-advertising may be the key to ensuring effectiveness of the ads reaching their target. Moreover, social networks are good sources of user information and can be used to extract user behaviour and characteristics for presentation of personalized advertising. Here we present a two-sided study based on two questionnaires, one directed to Internet users and the other to businesses. Our study shows that businesses agree that personalized advertising is the best way for the future, to maximize effectiveness and profit. In addition, our results indicate that most Internet users would prefer adaptive advertisements. From this study, we can propose a new design for a system that meets both Internet users’ and businesses’ requirements

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

Social personalized adaptive e-learning environment : Topolor - implementation and evaluation

This paper presents a quantitative study on the use of Topolor - a prototype that introduces Web 2.0 tools and Facebook-like appearance into an adaptive educational hypermedia system. We present the system design and its evaluation using system usability scale questionnaire and learning behavior data analysis. The results indicate high level of student satisfaction with the learning experience and the diversity of learning activities

Cognitive trait model for persistent and fine-tuned student modelling in adaptive virtual learning environments : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Information Science in Information Systems at Massey University

The increasing need for individualised instructional in both academic and corporate training environment encourages the emergence and popularity of adaptivity in virtual learning environments (VLEs). Adaptivity can be applied in VLEs as adaptivity content presentation, which generates the learning content adaptively to suit the particular learner's aptitude, and as adaptive navigational control, which dynamically modifies the structure of the virtual learning environment presented to the learner in order to prevent overloading the learner's cognitive load. Techniques for both adaptive content presentation and adaptive navigational control need to be integrated in a conceptual framework so their benefits can be synthesised to obtain a synergic result. Exploration space control (ESC) theory attempts to adjust the learning space, called exploration space, to allow the learners to reach an adequate amount of information that their cognitive load is not overloaded. Multiple presentation (MR) approach provides guidelines for the selection of multimedia objects for both the learning content presentation and as navigational links. ESC is further formalised by including the consideration of individual learner's cognitive traits, which are the cognitive characteristics and abilities the learner relevant in the process of learning. Cognitive traits selected in the formalisation include working memory capacity, inductive reasoning skill, associative learning skill, and information processing speed. The formalisation attempts to formulate a guideline on how the learning content and navigational space should be adjusted in order to support a learner with a particular set of cognitive traits. However, in order to support the provision of adaptivity, the learners and their activities in the VLEs need to be profiled; the profiling process is called student modelling. Student models nowadays can be categorised into state models, and process models. State models record learners' progress as states (e.g. learned, not learned), whereas a process model represents the learners in term of both the knowledge they learned in the domain, and the inference procedures they used for completing a process (task). State models and process models are both competence-based, and they do not provide the information of an individual's cognitive abilities required by the formalisation of exploration space control. A new approach of student modelling is required, and this approach is called cognitive trait model (CTM). The basis of CTM lies in the field of cognitive science. The process for the creation of CTM includes the following subtasks. The cognitive trait under inquiry is studied in order to find its indicative signs (e.g. sign A indicates high working memory capacity). The signs are called the manifests of the cognitive trait. Manifests are always in pairs, i.e. if manifest A indicates high working memory capacity, A's inverse, B, would indicates low working memory capacity. The manifests are then translated into implementation patterns which are observable patterns in the records of learner-system interaction. Implementation patterns are regarded as machine-recognisable manifests. The manifests are used to create nodes in a neural network like structure called individualised temperament network (ITN). Every node in the ITN has its weight that conditions and is conditioned by the overall result of the execution of ITN. The output of the ITN's execution is used to update the CTM. A formative evaluation was carried out for a prototype created in this work. The positive results of the evaluation show the educational potential of the CTM approach. The current CTM only cater for the working memory capacity, in the future research more cognitive traits will be studied and included into the CTM

A meta level to LAG for adaptation language re-use

Recently, a growing body of research targets authoring of content and adaptation strategies for adaptive systems. The driving force behind it is semantics-based reuse: the same adaptation strategy can be used for various domains, and vice versa. E.g., a Java course can be taught via a strategy differentiating between beginner and advanced users, or between visual versus verbal users. Whilst using an Adaptation Language (LAG) to express reusable adaptation strategies, we noticed, however, that: a) the created strategies have common patterns that, themselves, could be reused; b) templates based on these patterns could reduce the designers' work; c) there is a strong preference towards XML-based processing and interfacing. This has lead us to define a new meta-language for the LAG Adaptation Language, facilitating the extraction of common design patterns. This paper provides more insight into the LAG language, as well as describes this meta-language, and shows how introducing it can overcome some redundancy issues