Adapting to intelligence profile in an adaptive educational system

Learning characteristics, as informed by research, vary for each individual learner. Research suggests that knowledge is processed and represented in different ways and that students prefer to use different types of resources in distinct ways. However, building Adaptive Educational systems that adapt to different learning characteristics is not easy. Major research questions exist such as: how are the relevant learning characteristics identified, how does modelling of the learner take place and in what way should the learning environment change for users with different learning characteristics? EDUCE is one system that addresses these challenges by using Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligences (MI) as the basis for dynamically modelling learning characteristics and for designing instructional material. This paper describes a research study, using EDUCE, that explores the effect of using different adaptive presentation strategies and the impact on learning performance when material is matched and mismatched with learning preferences. The results suggest that students with low levels of learning activity, and who use only a limited number of the resources available, have the most to benefit from adaptive presentation strategies and that surprisingly learning gain increases when they are provided with resources not normally preferred.