ODL Education Environments based on Adaptivity and Adaptability

In the Information Society of the new millennium, the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is becoming essential for the rapid dissemination of information. In this context, Open and Distance Learning (ODL) will have a growing role in effectively training people to have active roles in society. However, modern learners have a variety of backgrounds, with respect to knowledge, social environment, preferences, etc. Therefore, our main goal is to create the basis of a European platform of standards for user modeling-based adaptability and adaptation, towards individualization of the learning process. This paper reports about the birth of a new European project, ambitiously aiming at going one step further than plain user modeling (UM), by creating a common structure for the ODL systemsí adaptive response to specific user needs, thereby creating a basis for modern European Education. The main goal of this paper is to highlight the importance of the standardization of the adaptive and adaptable techniques to the research community at large, and therefore find more external support for our efforts. Moreover, this paper presents some first background research to establish a starting point for this project.