A Model of Adaptive E-Learning in an ODL Environment

Abstract

In recent years, technology enabled learning also called e-learning is penetrating in the educational sector and its use is increasing especially in ODL (Open and Distance Learning). But a majority of the e-learning systems merely focuses on instruction delivery with little focus on learning activities and thus creating opportunities to develop e-learning more interactive and engaging by adding adaptive features. However, it is also a challenging task to develop and implement an adaptive e-learning model for an ODL environment. There are various issues like non-availability of the specialized contents, the learning sequence story board and the preferences of learners under the available infrastructure. This paper proposes a model of adaptive e-learning for an ODL environment. The proposed model has three important components: content model, learner model and adaptive model. The content model defines and stores the organization of chapters and topics in a logical sequence. The learner model stores information about survey and quizzes data and keep the track of the learning performance. The survey is designed to investigate the personal profiles and the preference of students about their favorite content types. The adaptive model manages content presentation and its navigation derived by the learning algorithm. The learning algorithm takes information from the learner model, analyzes it and adjusts the display of the contents by retrieving it from the content model. The implementation was conducted on two courses of computer science and in each course the experimental and control groups were formed to investigate the change in their learning level. The results show that the proposed adaptive e-learning model has improved the knowledge level of the students. The percentage of highest grade holders has increased and the failure rate has dropped in both courses. The feedback of the students enrolled in adaptive e-learning course is also conducted. The results of the survey highlight the positive opinion about this new paradigm of technology based learning.