A spiral model for adding automatic, adaptive authoring to adaptive hypermedia

At present a large amount of research exists into the design and implementation of adaptive systems. However, not many target the complex task of authoring in such systems, or their evaluation. In order to tackle these problems, we have looked into the causes of the complexity. Manual annotation has proven to be a bottleneck for authoring of adaptive hypermedia. One such solution is the reuse of automatically generated metadata. In our previous work we have proposed the integration of the generic Adaptive Hypermedia authoring environment, MOT ( My Online Teacher), and a semantic desktop environment, indexed by Beagle++. A prototype, Sesame2MOT Enricher v1, was built based upon this integration approach and evaluated. After the initial evaluations, a web-based prototype was built (web-based Sesame2MOT Enricher v2 application) and integrated in MOT v2, conforming with the findings of the first set of evaluations. This new prototype underwent another evaluation. This paper thus does a synthesis of the approach in general, the initial prototype, with its first evaluations, the improved prototype and the first results from the most recent evaluation round, following the next implementation cycle of the spiral model [Boehm, 88]

Design of the CAM model and authoring tool

Students benefit from personalised attention; however, often teachers are unable to provide this. An Adaptive Hypermedia (AH) system can offer a richer learning experience in an educational environment, by giving personalised attention to students. On-line courses are becoming increasingly popular by means of Learning Management Systems (LSM). The aim of the GRAPPLE project is to integrate an AH with major LMS, to provide an environment that delivers personalised courses in a LMS interface. However, designing an AH is a much more complex and time-consuming task, than creating a course in a LMS. Several models and systems were developed previously, but the (re)-usability by educational authors of the adaptation remains limited. To simplify adaptive behaviour authoring for an educational author, a visual environment was selected as being most intuitive. This paper describes a reference model for authoring in a visual way and introduces an authoring tool based upon this model

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

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

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

Initial surface deformations during impact on a liquid pool

A tiny air bubble can be entrapped at the bottom of a solid sphere that impacts onto a liquid pool. The bubble forms due to the deformation of the liquid surface by a local pressure buildup inside the surrounding gas, as also observed during the impact of a liquid drop on a solid wall. Here we perform a perturbation analysis to quantitatively predict the initial deformations of the free surface of the liquid pool as it is approached by a solid sphere. We study the natural limits where the gas can be treated as a viscous fluid (Stokes flow) or as an inviscid fluid (potential flow). For both cases we derive the spatio-temporal evolution of the pool surface, and recover some of the recently proposed scaling laws for bubble entrapment. When inserting typical experimental values for the impact parameters, we find that the bubble volume is mainly determined by the effect of gas viscosity

Game based cyber security training: are serious games suitable for cyber security training?

Security research and training is attracting a lot of investment and interest from governments and the private sector. Most efforts have focused on physical security, while cyber security or digital security has been given less importance. With recent high-profile attacks it has become clear that training in cyber security is needed. Serious Games have the capability to be effective tools for public engagement and behavioural change and role play games, are already used by security professionals. Thus cyber security seems especially well-suited to Serious Games. This paper investigates whether games can be effective cyber security training tools. The study is conducted by means of a structured literature review supplemented with a general web search. While there are early positive indications there is not yet enough evidence to draw any definite conclusions. There is a clear gap in target audience with almost all products and studies targeting the general public and very little attention given to IT professionals and managers. The products and studies also mostly work over a short period, while it is known that short-term interventions are not particularly effective at affecting behavioural change

Defining adaptation in a generic multi layer model : CAM: the GRAPPLE conceptual adaptation model

Authoring of Adaptive Hypermedia is a difficult and time consuming task. Reference models like LAOS and AHAM separate adaptation and content in different layers. Systems like AHA! offer graphical tools based on these models to allow authors to define adaptation without knowing any adaptation language. The adaptation that can be defined using such tools is still limited. Authoring systems like MOT are more flexible, but usability of adaptation specification is low. This paper proposes a more generic model which allows the adaptation to be defined in an arbitrary number of layers, where adaptation is expressed in terms of relationships between concepts. This model allows the creation of more powerful yet easier to use graphical authoring tools. This paper presents the structure of the Conceptual Adaptation Models used in adaptive applications created within the GRAPPLE adaptive learning environment, and their representation in a graphical authoring tool