Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 1
Student Modeling for Personalized
Education: A Review of the Literature
Abstract The rapid development of computer technology and e-learning
reinforces the need of dynamic adaptation to the needs of each individual student.
Adaptation is performed through the student model, which is a crucial module of
an Intelligent Tutoring System. There are many student modeling techniques and
approaches. In this chapter, a review of the literature concerning student modeling
during the past decade is presented. The aim is to answer the three basic questions
on student modeling: what to model, how and why. This chapter presents compara-
tive tables that are the results of a 10-year review study in student modeling. They
reveal either the most common modeled student's characteristic, or the student
modeling approaches that are preferred in relation to student modeling character-
istics. So, the particular chapter can be, also, used as a guide for making decisions
about the techniques that should be adopted when designing a student model for
an adaptive tutoring system.
1.1 Introduction
“Intelligent Tutoring Systems” (ITSs) are computer-based educational systems that
contain some intelligence and can be used for adaptive learning. Their goal is to maxi-
mize the effectiveness of e-learning as human tutors provide the most effective instruc-
tion at classroom level readjusting each time the instructional process and the teaching
strategy considering the student's needs and abilities. The design and development of
an ITS is based on techniques that combine theories and models from the computer
science, cognitive science, psychology, learning science, computational linguistics,
artificial intelligence (Nwana 1990; Graesser et al. 2012) (Fig. 1.1 ). The typical archi-
tecture of an ITS includes the following four modules (Fig. 1.2 ):
• A knowledge domain model that stores the learning material that is taught to
students.
• A student model that stores information about the learner's knowledge level,
abilities, preferences and needs.
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