LOGEMON: The teacher support system in class using web-based materials - visualization of learning history for teacher aid

Continuing spread of the Internet leads to a greater availability of instructional materials that can be retrieved from the Web and it is expected that the volume of such materials will increase even more in the future. Considering these factors, we developed an experimental teacher support system LOGEMON with the purpose of helping the teachers in using Web-based instructional materials in class. This system makes it possible for the teacher to gather and view the information about the students' progress in learning during the classes, in which Web-based materials are used. In this paper, we present methods of creating and visualizing the learning histories of individual students. Learning histories are compiled from the browsing histories by using proxy servers and databases. However, proxy log is an abstract file that does not provide information needed by the teachers necessitating search of information from other sources. The learning history is presented to the teacher upon his request with simultaneous visualization. The instructional structure and learning history are presented visually in a superimposed manner to assist the teacher in his diagnosis of students' progress. Experimental results indicate that the visualized learning history provides a better understanding of the state of learning of individual students. LOGEMON is based on the client-server configuration, in which the database is run on the server and the browser is implemented in the form of the client's interface. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Syst Comp Jpn, 33(13): 60–74, 2002; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/scj.1173