Alexandra Cristea | University of Bucharest (original) (raw)
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Papers by Alexandra Cristea
In this paper we present an interesting experiment of combining teaching and research: the testin... more In this paper we present an interesting experiment of combining teaching and research: the testing of MOT, an adaptive hypermedia authoring tool based on the LAOS adaptive hypermedia authoring framework, via a class of about twenty graduate students from the Eindhoven University of Technology, taking a two week intensive course in Adaptive Systems and User Modeling. We will show what the incentives of the experiment were, by giving a short description of LAOS, the theoretical background; then we will sketch MOT, the on-line system gradually implementing LAOS. The focus of the paper will be the experiment itself, with its parameters: the setting and initial planning, the actual implementation and the results. Finally, we will comment on the results and interpret them. Moreover, we will discuss what we have learned from these results and how they pointed us to new ways of improving MOT.
In this paper, we describe the design steps for WWW authoring of adaptive hypermedia via a five l... more In this paper, we describe the design steps for WWW authoring of adaptive hypermedia via a five layer model. We argue that we need to introduce the goal and constraints model between the domain model and adaptation and user models, in order to be able to generate adaptive hypermedia on the fly and to actually implement the so often quoted re-usage paradigm. We also show the operators necessary to implement functionality at the different levels, and exemplify this layered construction with MOT, an adaptive hypermedia (in particular, courseware) authoring system we have built at the Eindhoven University of Technology.
With the expansion of successful applications of adaptive techniques for Telecommunications in Ed... more With the expansion of successful applications of adaptive techniques for Telecommunications in Education, in particular, for various Web-based Education and Training systems, there is a growing need of creating the respective authoring support [2] [5] [6] [7] [8] . A hypermedia tool called 'My Online Teacher' (MOT) has been developed and extended at the Eindhoven University of Technology that can be used for authoring adaptive hypermedia courses. With this tool, the subject-matter of the course to be designed can be modeled by means of concept maps. Based on these concept maps lessons can be constructed. Concept maps and lessons form the two levels of pre-adaptive content, and they are stored in a database. This structure lays the basis for various types of adaptation, as it uses both the expressivity of metadata annotation and the flexibility of the database structure (on which different queries can be performed) as will be illustrated. This paper describes this tool's design, implementation and first evaluation remarks. MOT is being presently used for the creation of a variant of the classical Neural Network course for third year students at the Eindhoven University of Technology. 1. A tool for manipulating concept maps. 2. A tool for constructing lessons based on a concept map. 3. A method for calculating correspondence weights between concept attributes.
This paper presents an innovative approach to personalize on-line content to the needs of individ... more This paper presents an innovative approach to personalize on-line content to the needs of individual learners. We use a regular educational environment, the Blackboard TM Learning Management System, with a new approach: we add adaptivity and personalization to it by means of authoring the goaloriented material in an Adaptive Hypermedia authoring system, MOT, and delivering it in Blackboard via a conversion to the SCORM specification. This represents the first attempt to connect Adaptive Hypermedia and Learning Management Systems.
Educational Technology & Society, 2005
This paper describes the use of adaptation patterns in the task of formulating standards for adap... more This paper describes the use of adaptation patterns in the task of formulating standards for adaptive educational hypermedia (AEH) systems that is currently under investigation by the EU ADAPT project. Within this project, design dimensions for high granularity patterns have been established. In this paper we focus on detailing lower granularity adaptive patterns based upon learning styles. Several patterns from existing AEH system case studies are identified and classified according to an extended learning style "onion" model. This model forms the basis of a learning style taxonomy, introduced here, whose components determine adaptation patterns for AEH. These patterns are of importance both for authoring, as well as for interfacing between adaptive hypermedia systems. From an authoring point of view, these patterns may be used to establish a fine-grain approach to instructional strategies that can be implemented in AEH systems, as a response to a particular learning style. The implementation of this adaptation pattern taxonomy is discussed, both generally and in detail.
This paper presents an approach to authoring support for Web courseware based on a layered ontolo... more This paper presents an approach to authoring support for Web courseware based on a layered ontological paradigm. The ontology-based layers in the courseware authoring architecture serve as a basis for formal semantics and reasoning support in performing generic authoring tasks. This approach represents an extension of our knowledge classification and indexing mechanism from a previously developed system, AIMS, aimed at supporting students while completing learning tasks in a Web-based learning/training environment. We propose the addition of two vertical layers in the system architecture, Author assisting layer and Operational layer, with the role of facilitating the creation of the ontological layers (Course ontology and Domain ontology) and of the educational metadata layer. Here we focus on the domain ontology creation process, together with the support that the additional layers can provide within this process. We exemplify our method by presenting a set of generic tasks related to conceptbased domain authoring and their ontological support.
In this paper we propose a set of guidelines for an adaptive authoring environment of adaptive ed... more In this paper we propose a set of guidelines for an adaptive authoring environment of adaptive educational hypermedia. This set consists of relevant and necessary functionalities of authoring systems (AS) for adaptive teaching and/or learning environments (LE). We extracted the core functionalities by analysing MyEnglishTeacher (MyET) and AIMS -two independently designed and built AS for adaptable/ adaptive LE. The extended core led us to a conceptbased layered approach with respect to concept-and attribute-level adaptation, as well as lesson and presentation adaptation. We believe that providing adaptive authoring support for adaptive hypermedia will have a strong impact on the authorsí motivation and efficiency in performing their tasks and consequently will increase the popularity of adaptive hypermedia.
Educational Technology & Society, 2004
Semantic Web and Adaptive Hypermedia come from different backgrounds, but it turns out that actua... more Semantic Web and Adaptive Hypermedia come from different backgrounds, but it turns out that actually, they can benefit from each other, and that their confluence can lead to synergistic effects. This encounter can influence several fields, among which an important one is Education. This paper presents an analysis of this encounter, first from a theoretical point of view, and then with the help of LAOS, an Adaptive Hypermedia (authoring) framework that has already taken many steps towards accomplishing the goals of the Semantic Web. Here we also show how the LAOS framework, and more specifically, its implementation, MOT (My Online Teacher), can be re-written in Semantic Web languages, as an exercise of bringing Adaptive Hypermedia and the Semantic Web closer together.
In this paper we present an interesting experiment of combining teaching and research: the testin... more In this paper we present an interesting experiment of combining teaching and research: the testing of MOT, an adaptive hypermedia authoring tool based on the LAOS adaptive hypermedia authoring framework, via a class of about twenty graduate students from the Eindhoven University of Technology, taking a two week intensive course in Adaptive Systems and User Modeling. We will show what the incentives of the experiment were, by giving a short description of LAOS, the theoretical background; then we will sketch MOT, the on-line system gradually implementing LAOS. The focus of the paper will be the experiment itself, with its parameters: the setting and initial planning, the actual implementation and the results. Finally, we will comment on the results and interpret them. Moreover, we will discuss what we have learned from these results and how they pointed us to new ways of improving MOT.
In this paper, we describe the design steps for WWW authoring of adaptive hypermedia via a five l... more In this paper, we describe the design steps for WWW authoring of adaptive hypermedia via a five layer model. We argue that we need to introduce the goal and constraints model between the domain model and adaptation and user models, in order to be able to generate adaptive hypermedia on the fly and to actually implement the so often quoted re-usage paradigm. We also show the operators necessary to implement functionality at the different levels, and exemplify this layered construction with MOT, an adaptive hypermedia (in particular, courseware) authoring system we have built at the Eindhoven University of Technology.
With the expansion of successful applications of adaptive techniques for Telecommunications in Ed... more With the expansion of successful applications of adaptive techniques for Telecommunications in Education, in particular, for various Web-based Education and Training systems, there is a growing need of creating the respective authoring support [2] [5] [6] [7] [8] . A hypermedia tool called 'My Online Teacher' (MOT) has been developed and extended at the Eindhoven University of Technology that can be used for authoring adaptive hypermedia courses. With this tool, the subject-matter of the course to be designed can be modeled by means of concept maps. Based on these concept maps lessons can be constructed. Concept maps and lessons form the two levels of pre-adaptive content, and they are stored in a database. This structure lays the basis for various types of adaptation, as it uses both the expressivity of metadata annotation and the flexibility of the database structure (on which different queries can be performed) as will be illustrated. This paper describes this tool's design, implementation and first evaluation remarks. MOT is being presently used for the creation of a variant of the classical Neural Network course for third year students at the Eindhoven University of Technology. 1. A tool for manipulating concept maps. 2. A tool for constructing lessons based on a concept map. 3. A method for calculating correspondence weights between concept attributes.
This paper presents an innovative approach to personalize on-line content to the needs of individ... more This paper presents an innovative approach to personalize on-line content to the needs of individual learners. We use a regular educational environment, the Blackboard TM Learning Management System, with a new approach: we add adaptivity and personalization to it by means of authoring the goaloriented material in an Adaptive Hypermedia authoring system, MOT, and delivering it in Blackboard via a conversion to the SCORM specification. This represents the first attempt to connect Adaptive Hypermedia and Learning Management Systems.
Educational Technology & Society, 2005
This paper describes the use of adaptation patterns in the task of formulating standards for adap... more This paper describes the use of adaptation patterns in the task of formulating standards for adaptive educational hypermedia (AEH) systems that is currently under investigation by the EU ADAPT project. Within this project, design dimensions for high granularity patterns have been established. In this paper we focus on detailing lower granularity adaptive patterns based upon learning styles. Several patterns from existing AEH system case studies are identified and classified according to an extended learning style "onion" model. This model forms the basis of a learning style taxonomy, introduced here, whose components determine adaptation patterns for AEH. These patterns are of importance both for authoring, as well as for interfacing between adaptive hypermedia systems. From an authoring point of view, these patterns may be used to establish a fine-grain approach to instructional strategies that can be implemented in AEH systems, as a response to a particular learning style. The implementation of this adaptation pattern taxonomy is discussed, both generally and in detail.
This paper presents an approach to authoring support for Web courseware based on a layered ontolo... more This paper presents an approach to authoring support for Web courseware based on a layered ontological paradigm. The ontology-based layers in the courseware authoring architecture serve as a basis for formal semantics and reasoning support in performing generic authoring tasks. This approach represents an extension of our knowledge classification and indexing mechanism from a previously developed system, AIMS, aimed at supporting students while completing learning tasks in a Web-based learning/training environment. We propose the addition of two vertical layers in the system architecture, Author assisting layer and Operational layer, with the role of facilitating the creation of the ontological layers (Course ontology and Domain ontology) and of the educational metadata layer. Here we focus on the domain ontology creation process, together with the support that the additional layers can provide within this process. We exemplify our method by presenting a set of generic tasks related to conceptbased domain authoring and their ontological support.
In this paper we propose a set of guidelines for an adaptive authoring environment of adaptive ed... more In this paper we propose a set of guidelines for an adaptive authoring environment of adaptive educational hypermedia. This set consists of relevant and necessary functionalities of authoring systems (AS) for adaptive teaching and/or learning environments (LE). We extracted the core functionalities by analysing MyEnglishTeacher (MyET) and AIMS -two independently designed and built AS for adaptable/ adaptive LE. The extended core led us to a conceptbased layered approach with respect to concept-and attribute-level adaptation, as well as lesson and presentation adaptation. We believe that providing adaptive authoring support for adaptive hypermedia will have a strong impact on the authorsí motivation and efficiency in performing their tasks and consequently will increase the popularity of adaptive hypermedia.
Educational Technology & Society, 2004
Semantic Web and Adaptive Hypermedia come from different backgrounds, but it turns out that actua... more Semantic Web and Adaptive Hypermedia come from different backgrounds, but it turns out that actually, they can benefit from each other, and that their confluence can lead to synergistic effects. This encounter can influence several fields, among which an important one is Education. This paper presents an analysis of this encounter, first from a theoretical point of view, and then with the help of LAOS, an Adaptive Hypermedia (authoring) framework that has already taken many steps towards accomplishing the goals of the Semantic Web. Here we also show how the LAOS framework, and more specifically, its implementation, MOT (My Online Teacher), can be re-written in Semantic Web languages, as an exercise of bringing Adaptive Hypermedia and the Semantic Web closer together.