Towards a Conceptual and Service-Based Adaptation Model

Current practice in adaptation modeling assumes that concepts and relationships between concepts are the fundamental building blocks of any adaptive course or adaptive application. This assumption underlies many of the mismatches we nd between the syntax of an adaptation model and the semantics of the `realworld' entity it is trying to model, e.g. procedural knowledge modeled as a single concept and services or activities modeled as pockets of intelligent content. Furthermore, it results in adaptation models that are devoid of truly interactive services with work ow and data ow between those services; it is impossible to capture the semantics of a process-oriented application, e.g. activity-based learning in education and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in the workplace. To this end, we describe a representation of a conceptual and service-based adaptation model. The most signi cant departure from existing representations for adaptation models is the rei cation of services. The goal is to allow for the adaptation of the process itself and not just its constituent parts, e.g. an SOP can be adapted to the role or job function of a user. This expressive power will address the mismatches identi ed above and allow for activity-based and process-oriented adaptive applications.