UNITECH05

International Scientific Conference

24 25 November 2006, GABROVO

An approach to designing of an adaptive distance education systemsMarkovi SuzanaAdvanced Business School, BlaceNenad Jovanovi

Ranko PopoviAdvanced Business School, Blace

Faculty of Computer Science, BelgradeAbstract

In traditional learning environments, teachers monitor students and control their learning strategies and performances. Nowadays, in many computer-based learning systems provide students with personalized learning and enable them to be responsible about their learning, while the teachers roles is ignored. So, the motivation behind our research is to develop a flexible system which works according to a teachers decisions and student performance. This paper outlines a multimedia adaptive system of distance learning where the main emphasis is laid on the student and corresponding student profile. Keywords: multimedia, adaptive system, student profile, knowledge assessment.introduction

Even we are in the third millennium, most teachers still rely on well-established primitive aids, for example, the chalkboard-one of historys earliest teaching tools-remains the preferred exposition medium in many scientific disciplines. Since the advent of computational devices in education, researchers have sought the means for properly integrating them and taking advantage of their capabilities [1].

Numerous computer-based systems have been used in education to increase student performance and motivation.

There are distance education models based on students behavior and their interactions with the system [2]:

Computer-Assisted Instruction (CAI or CBT Computer - Based training). This system has contributed significantly to the use of computers in education, but it was not designed to provide adaptive learning.

Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS), observes what learners do during instruction, and then uses pre-described sequences of rules. ITS is dedicated to helping student to learn at their own pace with individualized instructions and responses. However, ITS has failed to recognize the teachers role.

Integrated learning system (ILS), is made up of three components: curriculum content, record system, and management system. ILS extends CAI, but it keeps records of student performance and moves them through some levels of difficulty as appropriate.

Adaptive integrated learning system - while other systems aim to replace the real interaction between students and teachers, this system takes into consideration the teachers role as a main player in the system much like to that of the student role. So, when considering effective learning, no one can ignore the teachers role as an important element in the system..

Methodology of implemented solutionsThe topic of this paper refers to the implementation of a solution in the development of web applications. It is a realization of an adaptive distance learning system, since it provides student with: attending online classes (synchronized video instruction presentation), real-time communication and defining the student profile (with general information, information about courses completed and examinations passed). Within this module testing is carried out to assess the knowledge of students on the basis of which a student is assigned to a corresponding group.

On the other hand, the system is also technologically adaptable because it can be adjusted to different devices: desktop PC, mobile units (lap-top, PDA, cell phone).

At present, the trend is to develop applications in three-layer architecture. The layers of application architecture are:

Data layer - necessary data are placed in MS Access database together with stored procedures.

Middleware layer describes business logic and access to data implemented by ASP. The selected web server is IIS.

Presentation layer - client side covering user PC desktop applications, Web applications, mobile applications, etc. depending on technologies used for the presentation layer, such as ASP, MOBILE.NET, PHP, etc.

A modular outline of distance learning system web application is given in Fig.1.

Fig. 1. Modules of web applicationSystem enable authorized student access to instruction material. Namely, the entire system is so designed to be divided into following modules:1. The instruction module takes the central part of the application. The module is implemented by means of ASP. The basic execution courseis just distributed online as a multimedia course. That is, video file lectures (Avi format) are transformed into many .swf format files (by applying Cantasia studio tools), dividing a huge file i.e. capacity is divided into many small ones. The obtained files can be downloaded more easily and quickly from the Internet, which was exactly the purpose.

The realization of this module is given in Fig. 2. A video file represents the video of a teachers lecture synchronized with presentation slides which follows the course of instruction units. The navigation of video files is enabled with appropriate buttons, while the navigation of slides is effected through thumbnails which show previous, current and next slide. The module saves its data in the database. The selected RDBMS is MS Access. This module is directly connected to the communication module.

Fig. 2. Realization of Instruction module 2. The next module is the one by which the communication in the system is achieved. In order for the communication to be truly synchronised, the participants must be able to find each other in the network and exchange messages sufficiently quickly to lend credibility to the term synchronized communication.

A part of real-time video communication together with messenger will enable synchronized communication between teacher and student on current instruction material. If required, the communication can be textual only.

The other part of this module will give the student insight into electronic board, printed materials (by means of an OCR device) during the teachers lecture. In such a way the student can get further information on the topic of the instruction presentation.

Audio streaming is realized in this module, by which the audio file is broadcasted from the teacher to all distant students.

One of the advantages of a computer based learning system over the traditional learning systems is its flexibility. These systems do not give full control over the learning process to the student, but also include the teacher in the process, who oversees his/her activities and automatically leads him/her through the learning process aided by appropriate tools.

The aim of adaptive systems is precisely the connection of instruction and learning into one integrated dynamic knowledge - transfer environment [3] which uses learning objects made according to a valid standard, such as SCORM. Electronic instruction materials created in such a manner are adaptable in conformity with different methods of learning.

3. The last module represents the student profile. This module comprises the following information:

general student data (name, surname, address, e-mail, etc.),

the appropriate group to which the student belongs on the basis of assessed level of knowledge,

his/her performance at specific courses he/she completed, and

a number of different methods of knowledge testing applied depending on the group to which the student belongs.

In order to assign a student to the appropriate group, it is necessary to carry out appropriate knowledge assessment [4]. Unlike static knowle-dge assessment, which usually has a fixed number of questions presented to all students, the adaptive model uses dynamic knowledge assessment. Moreover, the knowledge testing may be: preliminary (assessing the students general level of knowledge) and progressive (assessing student knowledge at different stages of the learning process).

Each knowledge assessment has different parameters defining: the assessment termination (completion) criterion, number of questions to be offered to the student, etc.

In preliminary testing, time as a parameter is not taken into consideration, since the testing is intended only to determine the level of the students knowledge and to assign him/her the appropriate group accordingly.

In the phase of progressive testing, the adaptive system automatically determines the students level of knowledge and, if required, dynamically generates the areas he/she has to learn again.Results

In traditional learning environments, teachers monitor students and control their learning strategies and performances. Nowadays, in many computer-based learning systems provide students with personalized learning and enable them to be responsible about their learning, while the teachers roles is ignored. So, the motivation behind our research is to develop a flexible system which works according to a teachers decisions and student performance.

In this part, the statistical results obtained through the monitoring of the students progress by the teacher are shown. Information system design was the subject of the testing of students who must have certain previous knowledge of information systems, acquired in the Introduction to Information Systems course as a prerequisite to attend this course.

1. First stage Preliminary assessment. This assessment is used first to evaluate students level of knowledge. The research results are shown on Fig.3.

Fig. 3 The results of preliminary assessment

Preliminary assessment assign a student to the appropriate group: group A students with best results (6 students), group B students with average results, (10 students), group C students with bed results (9). In this assignment stage, the system automatically assigns students to an appropriate level of knowledge.

Teaching according to the student level of knowledge is an important issue in adaptive learning. This statistics indicate to teacher that level of course has to be normal. In other case it can be elementary or advanced.

Progress assessment is used to estimate student acquiring of knowledge following the completion of any level in the concept learning. The students of group B are tested. There are the results:

Fig. 4 The results of progress assessmentThe system generates a response: Students are assigned to concepts that they did not successfully master during the assessment stage. The goal of assessment is to know exactly what concepts a student needs to learn, and in at what level a student should start to initiate the learning process.

Also, system observes students progress during the teaching process. There are two types of students: students who have regularly attended lectures and students who havent attended lectures at all.

The research results show that students who have regularly attended lectures have better passing than other one. Figure below show comparative analyze of students progress:

Figure 5. Comparative analyze of students progress

Conclusions

Rapid development of technological achievements and opportunities available in the information era impose new rules of conduct in all fields, including education.

As the use of the computer as a as a standard instruction medium has begun, researchers have tried to integrate the instruction delivery media in an adequate way and use the possibilities the same offer.

Multimedia instruction software environment should offer something more than the management of individual instruction units. It must provide a complete solution offering the integration of educational mini applications and fundamental support to create and distribute generated contents.

This paper outlines a multimedia adaptive system of distance learning where the main emphasis is laid on the student and corresponding student profile. System has several advantages, which improve teaching and facilitate the learning process compared to existing systems. Teachers play significant roles in the system. Web-based system is easily available to students. The contents are automatically adaptive based on student performances and teacher preferences. Finaly, system is divided into the several modules. This approach provides great flexibility to adapt to future needs.

REFERENCE

[1]G. Friedland and K. Pauls: Architecting Multimedia Environments for Teaching, Freie Universitt Berlin, Published by the IEEE Computer Society, June 2005.[2]F. T. Alotaiby and J. X. Chen and H. Wechsler and E. J. Wegman and D. Sprague: Adaptive Web-based Learning System, Proceedings of the 12th IEEE International Conference and Workshops on the Engineering of Computer-Based Systems, 2005..[3]V. Adamchik and A. Gunawardena: Adaptive Book: Teaching and Learning Environment for Programming Education, Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Technology: Coding and Computing, 2005.[4]Galeev and L. Tararina and O. Kolosov: Problems of building adaptive integrated learning environments, Proceedings of the The 3rd IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies, 2003.