Incorporating learning styles into the user model

In this paper, we show the main definitions of learning styles, and a summary of the opinions about the efficacy of learning styles. In addition, this paper explores the application of the Felder-Silverman learning style model to adaptive training courses delivered via the “World Wide Web”. Due to the newness of the Web, its features, benefits, limitations and requirements as a delivery medium for distance learning are largely unstudied and unverified. This paper presents an attempt to incorporate learning styles in adaptive web-based systems and links it to the larger context of web-based education. In sum, this piece of research offers new ideas concerning an Adaptive We-based Education system, which includes the extraction of student’s learning styles preferences and then modifying the course presentation. We have implemented a prototype that adapts the course structure to the student learning style. We suggest the application of the results of the ILS questionnaire to automatically adapt some dimensions of the Felder-Silverman model to the course content and structure. The underlying idea of adaptive hypermedia based on learning styles is quite simple: adapt the presentation of course material so that it is more conductive to each student learning the course. This tailoring should allow for student learning in the shortest possible period of time. This approach has the effect of removing the impact of the instructor’s learning and eaching style and allowing the student to see the material through the clear lenses of his own perspective and learning style.The Spanish Interdepartmental Commission of Science and Technology (CICYT), project number TIC2001-0685-C02-01, has sponsored this work

On the dynamic adaptation of Computer Assisted Assessment of free-text answers

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/11768012_54Proceedings of 4th International Conference, AH 2006, Dublin, Ireland, June 21-23, 2006.To our knowledge, every free-text Computer Assisted Assessment (CAA) system automatically scores the students and gives feedback to them according to their responses, but, none of them include yet personalization options. The free-text CAA system Atenea [1] had simple adaptation possibilities by keeping static student profiles [2]. In this paper, we present a new adaptive version called Willow. It is based on Atenea and adds the possibility of dynamically choosing the questions to be asked according to their difficulty level, the students’ profile and previous answers. Both Atenea and Willow have been tested with 32 students that manifested their satisfaction after using them. The results stimulate us to continue exploiting the possibilities of incorporating dynamic adaptation to free-text CAA.This work has been sponsored by Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology, project number TIN2004-0314

Considering learning styles in adaptative web-based education

This paper shows a way of using some dimensions of learning styles of students in order to improve the efficiency of adaptive learning systems. Firstly, it reviews the literature and previous work related to the taxonomy of learning styles and its application to web-based education. Later, it introduces the Felder-Silverman learning style model and the procedure of extracting information about students’ learning styles from the Felder-Soloman ILS questionnaire. Then, it presents a mechanism of application of these dimensions to content sequencing. The example used to explain the adaptation effects is taken from a course developed with TANGOW, Task-based Adaptive learNer Guidance On the Web.This work has been sponsored by the Spanish Interdepartmental Commission of Science and Technology (CICYT), project numbers TEL1999-0181 and TIC2001-0685-C02-01

¿Pueden los ordenadores evaluar automáticamente preguntas abiertas?

Tradicionalmente la sección de evaluación de la mayoría de los cursos on-line se basaba únicamente en preguntas de elección múltiple. Sin embargo, según la opinión generalizada de muchos investigadores, educadores y psicólogos restringirse exclusivamente a preguntas cerradas no permite evaluar completamente las habilidades cognitivas de los estudiantes. Esto ha tenido como consecuencia la creación del campo conocido como Evaluación Automática de preguntas abiertas. Lo que se plantea en este artículo es si realmente funciona. Esto es, ¿cuán fiable es un ordenador como evaluador automático de respuestas en texto libre escritas por estudiantes? Para dar respuesta a este interrogante hemos revisado la historia de este campo y visto como en los últimos años, estos sistemas han empezado a usarse como comprobadores de las notas puestas por los profesores, para asegurar una correcta evaluación. En todo caso no se puede olvidar que los ordenadores (al menos por ahora) no son más que máquinas sin sentido común ni inteligencia propia, lo que les impide enfrentarse con éxito a respuestas demasiado originales que quizás estén bien pero se salen de lo comúnmente establecido como correcto. El desafío está propuesto y, en nuestra opinión, mantener los objetivos realistas será lo que consiga que este campo avance, con paso firme, despejando cualquier incertidumbre sobre su validezEste trabajo ha sido financiado por el proyecto TIN2004-0314 del Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia español

Adapting an educational tool to be used by non-severe cognitive disabled students

Also published online by CEUR Workshop Proceedings (CEUR-WS.org, ISSN 1613-0073)Proceeding of Towards User Modeling and Adaptive Systems for All (TUMAS-A 2009): Modeling and Evaluation of Accessible Intelligent Learning Systems, In conjunction with the 14th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED 2009) Brighton, United Kingdom, July 6, 2009.Since 2007, we have been using the Will Tools, a set of Blended Learning applications able to automatically assess students’ free-text answers and provide immediate personalized feedback to each student. In this paper, our hypothesis is that these tools can be easily adapted to be used by students with some type of non-severe cognitive impairment. In order to test this hypothesis, we present a procedure to transform the Will Tools into the Will Tools ALADE (the version of the Will Tools designed for students with cognitive disabilities). Moreover, an experiment in which 13 students, some of them with Down syndrome and others type of non-severe mental disabilities, have successfully used the Will Tools ALADE is describedThis work has been sponsored by Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology, project TIN2007-64718

Un formalismo para la representación y utilización de información bilingüe en sistemas de traducción automática

Tesis - Universidad Complutense de Madrid,Facultad de Ciencias Físicas,Departamento de Informática y Automática,1991.Sección Deptal. de Arquitectura de Computadores y Automática (Físicas)Fac. de Ciencias FísicasTRUEProQuestpu

An adaptive hierarchical questionnaire based on the Index of Learning Styles

Proceedings of the Sixth International Workshop on Authoring of Adaptive and Adaptable HypermediaOne of the main concerns when providing learning style adaptation in Adaptive Educational Hypermedia Systems is the number of questions the students have to answer. With respect to learning styles, it is possible to decrease the number of versions taking into account the general tendency of the student and not the specific score obtained in each dimension. In this paper we present a new approach to reduce the number of questions of Index of Learning Styles (ILS) questionnaire based on Felder-Silverman’s Learning Style Model (FSLSM). The results obtained in a case study with 330 students are very promising. It was possible to predict students’ learning styles with high accuracy and only a few questions.This work is supported by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science, TIN2007-6471

An object-oriented approach to task tree management in the TANGOW system

This paper describes the object-oriented features of TANGOW (Task-based Adaptive learNer Guidance On the WWW), a tool for developing Internet-based courses. This system facilitates the construction of adaptive learning environments for the WWW and is able to guide the students during their learning process based on student profiles and previous actions. In the TANGOW system, the course contents is modelled in terms of objects and relationships among them. This allows the course designer to reuse the same descriptive objects in different sections of the same course, or even in completely different courses. In addition, information about the student and his/her actions when interacting with the system is also stored as dynamic objects, which are instantiated at runtime. This makes it easy to access and update student related data.This paper has been sponsored by the Spanish Interdepartmental Commission of Science and Technology (CICYT), project number TEL97-0306

Creación de cursos adaptativos en TANGOW mediante tareas, reglas y elementos multimedia

En este artículo se describe, en términos generales, el proceso de diseño de un curso adaptativo accesible a través de Internet mediante el sistema TANGOW. En este proceso de diseño se establece una clara separación entre la estructura del curso, para cuya construcción se utilizan tareas y reglas docentes, y la asociación de contenidos a esta estructura. A continuación se analizan los distintos tipos de adaptación que pueden definirse durante el diseño de un curso entre las que se incluyen la adaptación en función del perfil del estudiante, las dependencias teóricas y prácticas entre tareas y la creación de distintas versiones de un mismo fragmento de contenido. Se describen, también, distintas aproximaciones metodológicas que facilitan la labor de di-seño de cursos adaptativos. El artículo termina con algunas conclusiones y trabajo futuro.Este trabajo ha sido financiado por la Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología (CICYT), con los números de proyecto TEL97-0306 y TEL1999-0181

An adaptive driving course based on HTML dynamic generation

Reprinted from the Proceedings of WebNet World Conference on the WWW and Internet 1999 with permission of AACE (http://www.aace.org).This is an electronic version of the paper presented at the World Conference on the WWW and Internet (WebNet '99) held in Honolulu (United States) on 1999In this paper we describe a new approach for developing adaptive Web based courses. These courses are defined by means of teaching tasks which correspond to basic knowledge units, and rules which describe how teaching tasks are divided into subtasks. Both tasks and rules are used at execution time to guide the students during their learning process by determining the set of achievable tasks to be presented to the student at every step. Adaptivity is implemented by presenting students with different HTML pages depending on their profile, their previous actions, and the active learning strategy. The HTML pages presented to the students are generated dynamically from general information about the type of media elements associated to each task and their layout. The whole approach is exemplified by means of a course on traffic signs