Project Title: Automatic individualisation of a learning design
Category: Intelligent Systems (But if data gathering from real respondents Subject to anonymity of respondents guaranteed in report)
DESCRIPTION: Tutors are increasingly faced with the need to cater for learners with differing backgrounds. In the traditional face-to-face scenario, a learning design is drawn up based on the “average student” and the entire cohort is forced through the same set of activities at the same pace. To cater for differing learner needs, the tutor monitors learners’ progress through activities, spotting weaker and stronger learners and adapting the sequence of activities for them. The emergence of IMS-Learning Design as a specification for describing the structure of a learning experience provides the opportunity to develop tools to support tutors in identifying opportunities for tailoring the learning design to individuals. This project looks at how course material can be targeted at specific types of learner in an appropriate and adaptable way. This is done by formalising the description of the course and the learner through the use of IMS-LD. A fuzzy matching scheme is used to correlate the learner profile with the course. This correlation is used to generate a unqiue route through a particular course. The success or failure of the suggested route is ascertained and new routes through the courses are evolved using genetic principles. These are then fed back into the profile/course correlation mechanism previously described. In this way specific target routes through a set of course material can be continually evolved.
PRE-REQUISITES: Internet Technology; Learning technologies; excellent programming