Towards “anytime, anywhere” Learning: The Role and Realization of Dynamic Terminal Personalization in Adaptive eLearning

Bruner, J describes the method of learning as actively processing past and current knowledge and information to form new ideas and concepts. Personalization of learning involves the presentation of a learning experience that is customized to the preferences of the learner. Personalization of learning can involve the tailoring of tools, terminals, communications, content, etc. to the needs of the individual. Personalization of learning is potentially beneficial in terms of time, money and, although somewhat controversially, effectiveness [Conlan, O., Dagger, D., Wade, V. (2002): Forbes (2000)]. Introduction Personalization can be based on multiple paradigms. Context Personalization is adapting to the preferences of the learner and semantics of the learner’s current environment. Competency Personalization is adapting to the learner’s prior knowledge of the information domain being presented. Prerequisite Personalization is adapting to the currently required prerequisites of the learner such as pre-session defined learning objectives and learning goals. One sub-category of context personalization is terminal adaptivity, adapting information to the characteristics of a device. A feature of today’s lifestyle has been the increased mobility of learning situations. Learning takes place in flexibly timetabled sessions at work, at home and when commuting. With the revolution of mobile devices the learner’s demand for “learning on the go” must be supported. One of the key challenges of this mobile learning environment is to deliver the appropriate learning resource to the learner. This can be achieved by adapting the content to the preferences of the learner, the characteristics of the current terminal and the appropriately selected narrative template. Terminal personalization will occur on a per session basis. Personalization can be achieved by applying many axes of adaptation effecting both the navigational structure and appearance of the learning experience. This paper describes an architecture and methodology for producing personalised course offerings with terminal awareness. This paper starts with a background of adaptive eLearning using Adaptive Hypermedia techniques. The paper provides a description of terminal personalization and example architecture for the delivery of such personalization.