The Design and Implementation of a Graphical Communication Medium for Interactive Open Lear.pdf

The Design and Implementation of a Graphical Communication Medium for Interactive Open Learner Modelling Vania Dimitrova, Paul Brna, John Self Computer Based Learning Unit, Leeds University, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK {vania, paul, jas}@comp.leeds.ac.uk Abstract. Our work explores an interactive open learner modelling (IOLM) approach where a learner is provided with the means to inspect and discuss the learner model. This paper presents the design and implementation of a communication medium for IOLM. We justify an approach of inspecting and discussing the learner model in a graphical manner using conceptual graphs. Based on an empirical study we draw design recommendations, taken into account in the implementation of the communication medium in STyLE-OLM - an IOLM system in a terminological domain. The potential and improvements of the medium are discussed on the basis of study with STyLE-OLM. 1 Introduction A crucial issue in building intelligent tutoring systems capable of adapting to the needs of individual learners is maintaining computational models that represent the learners preferences, needs and cognitive capacity [15]. Recently novel architectures that involve learners in diagnosis have been explored [2, 11, 13, 14, 19]. In line with these methods, we have investigated an approach, called interactive open learner modelling (IOLM), where learners are provided with the means to inspect and discuss the content of the models the systems build of them. Differently from the other overt diagnostic approaches, IOLM conceives diagnosis as an ongoing dialogue involving both a computer system and a learner