Information Technology Reference
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learning-styles, and that they are not based on a
'one size fits all' philosophy, in which learners are
seen as standardized 'units'” (European Union,
2004). The purpose here is to put users at the center
of the learning process. It will improve partici-
pation, open up opportunities for everyone and
enhance skills. Moreover, on 25 October 2006, the
European Parliament adopted the Commission's
ambitious proposals for a new action program
in the field of education and training (European
Union, 2006). For the first time, a single program
covers learning opportunities from childhood
to old age under the umbrella of the “Lifelong
Learning Programme” (European Union, 2007).
In the same way, personalized learning pro-
vides facilities to upgrade the skills of people
with disabilities. However, this “student-centered
approach” that is being promoted poses too many
challenges to both traditional HE institutions and
distance learning universities. In particular, the
infrastructure to support the required user-centered
scenario is still under development and the dif-
ferent pieces are not properly integrated. Firstly,
most courses on current LMS hardly offer any
information about which didactical methods and
models are used. As far as adaptation is concerned,
they just offer predefined settings for a particular
course that turn out to be the outcome of exten-
sive customizations. Secondly, in HE institutions
there exist a wide variety of ICT services, where
the adaptation and accessibility requirements
are not properly addressed, such as the manage-
ment of users (faculty staff, students, tutors, and
administrative people), contents of varied nature
(exams, study guides, calendars, bibliographic
resources, videos, audios, etc.) and communication
channels and means (e-mail, forums, news, radio,
educational TV, IP telephone, etc.). Furthermore,
e-learning processes cannot be isolated within a
particular system; they should be integrated with
the rest of the services provided, especially within
the LLL paradigm, where personal conditions
and students records are of major importance and
where ubiquitous scenarios and informal learn-
ing are to be considered. This objective is quite
relevant considering both, the increasing number
and variety of services that could cause problems
of usability and accessibility, and the interoperabil-
ity required to provide many functionalities. For
instance, depending on the profile of a particular
student (i.e. background knowledge, learning
goals, preferences, etc.) alternative sources of
information and consultancy services can be
provided. Likewise, for instance, a lecturer can
develop contents, syllabus, and course calendars
in a non-proprietary standard format that could be
eventually delivered via alternative means (web,
printed study guides, books, etc.).
But the real challenge is to cope with the
teaching and learning processes themselves.
When they become fully exploited, for instance,
a particular student, without having to wait for
tutors' feedback, will be able to go through a
personalized learning path full of learning activi-
ties that will be adjusted readily to cope with the
current learner situation. Furthermore, students
will receive automatic feedback when reaching
un-predicted learning impasses that could come
up while following a particular learning path.
Faculty staff as well will have to update their
current tasks to face the authoring of ICT-based
learning tasks that will be eventually performed by
many different learners in various technological
settings. Accordingly, to support the web-based
authoring, qualitative and quantitative reports
will be provided to course authors, remarking on
predefined assessment features. These reports will
include, for instance, what type of students (i.e.
their learning style, background, preferences, etc.)
have had problems while coping with a particular
learning task, or the percentage of learners' goals
that have been successfully achieved in a specific
learning situation, in a course, or even in a study
program.
All these services strongly depend on the
management of individual and group profiles
and their relationships with contents and context
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