Continuous use of authoring for adaptive educational hypermedia : a long-term case study

Adaptive educational hypermedia allows lessons to be personalized according to the needs of the learner. However, to achieve this, content must be split into stand-alone fragments that can be processed by a course personalization engine. Authoring content for this process is still a difficult activity, and it is essential for the popularization of adaptive educational hypermedia that authoring is simplified, so that the various stakeholders in the educational process, students, teachers, administrators, etc. can easily work with such systems. Thus, real-world testing with these stakeholders is essential. In this paper we describe recent extensions and improvements we have implemented in the My Online Teacher MOT3.0 adaptation authoring tool set, based on an initial set of short-term evaluations, and then focus on describing a long-term usage and assessment of the system

Transforming a linear module into an adaptive one : tackling the challenge

Every learner is fundamentally different. However, few courses are delivered in a way that is tailored to the specific needs of each student. Delivery systems for adaptive educational hypermedia have been extensively researched and found promising. Still, authoring of adaptive courses remains a challenge. In prior research, we have built an adaptive hypermedia authoring system, MOT3.0. The main focus was on enhancing the type of functionality that allows the non-technical author, to efficiently and effectively use such a tool. Here we show how teachers can start from existing course material and transform it into an adaptive course, catering for various learners. We also show how this apparent simplicity still allows for building of flexible and complex adaptation, and describe an evaluation with course authors

Reusing adaptation strategies in adaptive educational hypermedia systems

Due to the difficulty and thus effort and expenses involved in creating them, personalization strategies in learning environments have to demonstrate a higher return-on-investment (ROI), if they are to be a viable component of the learning setting of the future. One feature that can increase this ROI is the reusability of adaptation strategies in Adaptive Educational Hypermedia Systems. This research looks into various ways of enhancing this reusability. Using multiple modular adaptation strategies (MAS) with a controlling meta-strategy is proposed as a more efficient way of authoring adaptation strategies. This renders the reuse of adaptation strategies faster and easier for course authors. A method for semi-automatically breaking down complex adaptation strategies into smaller modular adaptation strategies is described. Potential problems with using multiple strategies are described and ways to solve them are discussed. Finally, some evaluation points are illustrated, conclusions are drawn and further research areas are identified

LAG 2.0 : refining a reusable adaptation language and improving on its authoring

Reusable adaptation specifications for adaptive behaviour has come to the forefront of adaptive research recently, with EU projects such as GRAPPLE, and PhD research efforts on designing an adaptation language for learning style specification [28]. However, this was not the case five years ago, when an adaptation language for adaptive hypermedia (LAG) was first proposed. This paper describes the general lessons learnt during the last five years in designing, implementing and using an adaptation language, as well as the changes that the language has undergone in order to better fulfil its goal of combining a high level of semantics with simplicity, portability as well as being flexible. Besides discussing these changes based on some sample strategies, this paper also presents a novel authoring environment for the programming-savvy adaptation author, that applies feedback accumulated during various evaluation sessions with the previous set of tools, and its first evaluation with programming experts

Development of a personalization model for web applications in a context of model-driven development

ABSTRACT: This dissertation develops and validates a maintainable approach to improve the modifiability of personalized web applications and to reduce the technical complexity to integrate personalization strategies in a short time in a business environment. The Software Reference Architecture to face the maintainability problem was proposed and the MAMPA framework (Model-driven Approach to enhance the Modifiability of Personalized Web Applications) was implemented

Supporting delivery of adaptive hypermedia

Although Adaptive Hypermedia (AH) can improve upon the traditional one-size-fitsall learning approach through Adaptive Educational Hypermedia (AEH), it still has problems with the authoring and delivery processes that are holding back the widespread usage of AEH. In this thesis we present the development of the Adaptive Delivery Environment (ADE) delivery system and use the lessons learnt during its development along with feedback from adaptation specification authors, researchers and other evaluations to formalise a list of essential and recommended optional features for AEH delivery engines. In addition to this we also investigate how the powerful adaptation techniques recommended in the above list and described in Brusilovsky and Knutov’s taxonomies can be implemented in a way that minimises the technical knowledge of adaptation authors needed to use these techniques. As the adaptation functionality increases, we research how a modular framework for adaptation strategies can be created to increase the reusability of parts of an AH system’s overall adaptation specification. Following on from this, we investigate how reusing these modular strategies via a pedagogically based visual editor can enable adaptation authors without programming experience to use these powerful adaptation techniques

Supporting authoring of adaptive hypermedia

It is well-known that students benefit from personalised attention. However, frequently teachers are unable to provide this, most often due to time constraints. An Adaptive Hypermedia (AH) system can offer a richer learning experience, by giving personalised attention to students. The authoring process, however, is time consuming and cumbersome. Our research explores the two main aspects to authoring of AH: authoring of content and adaptive behaviour. The research proposes possible solutions, to overcome the hurdles towards acceptance of AH in education. Automation methods can help authors, for example, teachers could create linear lessons and our prototype can add content alternatives for adaptation. Creating adaptive behaviour is more complex. Rule-based systems, XML-based conditional inclusion, Semantic Web reasoning and reusable, portable scripting in a programming language have been proposed. These methods all require specialised knowledge. Hence authoring of adaptive behaviour is difficult and teachers cannot be expected to create such strategies. We investigate three ways to address this issue. 1. Reusability: We investigate limitations regarding adaptation engines, which influence the authoring and reuse of adaptation strategies. We propose a metalanguage, as a supplement to the existing LAG adaptation language, showing how it can overcome such limitations. 2. Standardisation: There are no widely accepted standards for AH. The IMSLearning Design (IMS-LD) specification has similar goals to Adaptive Educational Hypermedia (AEH). Investigation shows that IMS-LD is more limited in terms of adaptive behaviour, but the authoring process focuses more on learning sequences and outcomes. 3. Visualisation: Another way is to simplify the authoring process of strategies using a visual tool. We define a reference model and a tool, the Conceptual Adaptation Model (CAM) and GRAPPLE Authoring Tool (GAT), which allow specification of an adaptive course in a graphical way. A key feature is the separation between content, strategy and adaptive course, which increases reusability compared to approaches that combine all factors in one model

Manual and automatic authoring for adaptive hypermedia

Adaptive Hypermedia allows online content to be tailored specifically to the needs of the user. This is particularly valuable in educational systems, where a student might benefit from a learning experience which only displays (or recommends) content that they need to know. Authoring for adaptive systems requires content to be divided into stand-alone fragments which must then be labelled with sufficient pedagogical metadata. Authors must also create a pedagogical strategy that selects the appropriate content depending on (amongst other things) the learner's profile. This authoring process is time-consuming and unfamiliar to most non-technical authors. Therefore, to ensure that students (of all ages, ability level and interests) can benefit from Adaptive Educational Hypermedia, authoring tools need to be usable by a range of educators. The overall aim of this thesis is therefore to identify the ways that this authoring process can be simplified. The research in this thesis describes the changes that were made to the My Online Teacher (MOT) tool in order to address issues such as functionality and usability. The thesis also describes usability and functionality changes that were made to the GRAPPLE Authoring Tool (GAT), which was developed as part of a European FP7 project. These two tools (which utilise different authoring paradigms) were then used within a usability evaluation, allowing the research to draw a comparison between the two toolsets. The thesis also describes how educators can reuse their existing non-adaptive (linear) material (such as presentations and Wiki articles) by importing content into an adaptive authoring system