A novel integrated approach to the execution of personalized and self-evolving learning pathways

One of the main challenges to be confronted by Higher Educational Institutions (HEI), so as to increase quality, is the provision of personalized education services in a wide range of educational settings, often beyond the course sequences historically offered to students. However, this personalization requires the continuous reconfiguration and adaptation of the selected academic plans, since each student is a unique case and both the educational options and current circumstances inside an educational institution change rapidly. In this paper, we present an innovative software environment offered to the academic staff and personnel that provides an integrated information technology solution concerning the dynamic and personalized composition of students’ learning pathways during execution phase. The software environment comprises a process execution engine based on a semantic infrastructure (ontology) for configuring the learning pathways. During the execution of learning pathways, the system reasons over the rules and dynamically recommends the next steps of the learning. The implemented graphical user interface and the respective business logic for the recommendation and execution of the learning pathway processes is presented, alongside with a graphical rule generator interface for the definition of the rule-set for the learning pathways in a user-friendly way.

[1]  Jano Moreira de Souza,et al.  Using a CBR approach based on ontologies for recommendation and reuse of educational processes , 2007, Int. J. Web Based Communities.

[2]  Samir Chatterjee,et al.  A Design Science Research Methodology for Information Systems Research , 2008 .

[3]  Leonid Churilov,et al.  Business Process-Oriented Information Support for a Higher Education Enterprise , 2003, PACIS.

[4]  Maria Tsinidou,et al.  Evaluation of the factors that determine quality in higher education: an empirical study , 2010 .

[5]  Achilles Kameas,et al.  An Ontology-Based Model for Student Representation in Intelligent Tutoring Systems for Distance Learning , 2012, AIAI.

[6]  Elena García Barriocanal,et al.  An ontology-driven framework for specifying, adapting and implementing educational settings , 2017, Appl. Ontology.

[7]  Sime Arsenovski,et al.  Evaluating usability in learning management system moodle , 2008, ITI 2008 - 30th International Conference on Information Technology Interfaces.

[8]  Rory McGreal,et al.  e-Advisor : A Multi-agent System for Academic Advising , 2007 .

[9]  Olena Kuzminska,et al.  Competence Approach to Modeling and Control of Students' Learning Pathways in the Cloud Service , 2017, ICTERI.

[10]  Eugenijus Kurilovas,et al.  Web 3.0 - Based personalisation of learning objects in virtual learning environments , 2014, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[11]  Anya Okhmatovskaia,et al.  An Ontology-Driven Framework for Deploying JADE Agent Systems , 2008, 2008 IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conference on Web Intelligence and Intelligent Agent Technology.

[12]  Achilles Kameas,et al.  Academic Advising Systems: A Systematic Literature Review of Empirical Evidence , 2017 .

[13]  Mahmoud Abd Ellatif,et al.  A proposed paradigm for smart learning environment based on semantic web , 2017, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[14]  N. F. Noy,et al.  Ontology Development 101: A Guide to Creating Your First Ontology , 2001 .

[15]  M. Porter.  Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance , 1985 .

[16]  Jan Recker,et al.  Business Process Management Education in Academia: Status, Challenges, and Recommendations , 2010, Commun. Assoc. Inf. Syst..

[17]  Elena García Barriocanal,et al.  Specifying Patterns of Educational Settings by means of Ontologies , 2013, J. Univers. Comput. Sci..

[18]  Maryam Yarandi,et al.  Adaptive E-Learning System Using Ontology , 2011, 2011 22nd International Workshop on Database and Expert Systems Applications.

[19]  Zubair A. Shaikh,et al.  A workflow based academic management system using multi agent approach , 2007 .

[20]  Elena García Barriocanal,et al.  Automating educational processes implementation by means of an ontological framework , 2014, Comput. Stand. Interfaces.

[21]  Margaret M. Nauta.  The development, evolution, and status of Holland's theory of vocational personalities: Reflections and future directions for counseling psychology. , 2010, Journal of counseling psychology.

[22]  William E. McCarthy,et al.  An ontological analysis of the economic primitives of the extended-REA enterprise information architecture , 2002, Int. J. Account. Inf. Syst..

[23]  Vicente Cerverón-Lleó,et al.  BPM FOR QUALITY ASSURANCE SYSTEMS IN HIGHER EDUCATION , 2014 .